Tate & Lyle, a global provider of ingredients and solutions to the food, beverage and other industries, opened its new Commercial and Food Innovation Centre in the Hoffman Estates suburb of Chicago, IL. The 110,000-sq.-ft. state-of-the-art facility is designed to facilitate customer collaboration from “idea-to-plate” through the development of new food and beverage products that satisfy consumers’ increasing demand for health, convenience, value and taste, and significantly accelerating their delivery to market.

Mars Petcare and The Nutro Company broke ground on an $87 million regional Innovation Center in Thompson’s Station, TN. The four-building campus will serve as the companies’ home base for creating future pet care innovations for its North American market. Construction is set to begin immediately on the four buildings, and completion is expected in spring 2014. The new center will support 144 jobs.

Tank Holding Corporation, which includes polyethylene tank manufacturers, Snyder Industries and Norwesco, was acquired by Leonard Green & Partners, L.P.

The Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) has a new online guide, “CSIA Certification: What are the benefits to clients,” and can be found at: http://www.controlsys.org/clientcertification.

Safety Consulting Engineers, a Chilworth/DEKRA company, announced that Brooks Fry has joined the company as general manager.

The Canadian company, GEA Aerofreeze Systems Inc., changed its name to GEA Refrigeration Canada Inc. With headquarters in Vancouver, the company concentrates GEA refrigeration technologies expertise and production activities in the area of spiral and carton freezers.

Gainco, Inc., a US-based manufacturer of weighing, packaging, food inspection and other yield enhancement systems for the meat, poultry and food processing industries, named Stephen P. Abram as its regional sales manager – southwest region and Michael D. Wright, Jr. as parts & service manager. 

Krones AG signed on to the United Nations Global Compact, which lays down guidelines for protecting human rights, defining labour standards, promoting environmental protection and combatting corruption; and obligates its member companies to comply with these.