Finwerd Beverage Academy (FBA) Launch

Finwerd Beverage Academy (FBA) Launch: A New Home for West Africa’s Beverage Know-How

Date & Venue: Thursday, April 24, 2025, 8:30am–4:40pm, Lagos Marriott Hotel, Ikeja (with virtual attendees from Ghana and Cameroon).

Finwerd Flavours & Fragrances officially launched the Finwerd Beverage Academy (FBA)—a capacity-building platform designed to help African beverage teams move faster from idea to shelf with better flavours, smarter sweetening, tighter quality, and fit-for-Africa compliance.

Media coverage in early May underscored the industry relevance of the launch. BusinessDay framed FBA as a vehicle “stirring innovation” across Africa’s beverage ecosystem (published May 21, 2025) and featured remarks from Finwerd’s leadership about investing in local talent (published May 4, 2025). THISDAY (May 5, 2025) and The Guardian (May 7, 2025) also reported the unveiling, highlighting FBA’s role in Nigeria’s $1.2bn beverage market.

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What Happened on Launch Day

A learning agenda built for real factories, not classrooms. The inaugural program blended creation, application, scale-up and regulation:

• Flavour Creation (Part 1 + Live Demo) — Catherine De Val (with Mari Van Gestel)
• Beverage Creation & Application — Mari Van Gestel
• NAFDAC Labelling & Declaration (Nigeria & West Africa) — Dr. Charles Nwachukwu
• Scale-Up Production & Quality Management — Roel Meerwaldt
  Cost-Effective Packaging Innovations — Iyore Amadasun
• Processing Technologies for Today’s Beverage Innovations — Dr. Anthony Osasumwen Osunde
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Who showed up: 47 registered; 36 attended (30 in-person; 6 virtual from Ghana & Cameroon). Six speakers delivered sessions (four in-person; two virtual).

What got tasted: A Finwerd Marketplace Innovation Showcase let participants sample 15 product concepts. Top performers included Sherry NA CSD, Choco Dark Malt and Tigernut Malt (most-tasted: Choco Dark Malt).

How it scored: Attendee satisfaction averaged 4.57/5 (above the 4.5 target). Relevance to career growth (4.8/5), speaker expertise (4.5/5), and willingness to recommend (4.8/5) led the feedback. Participants asked for longer tasting and more hands-on time next edition.
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Why FBA Matters Now

Independent reporting captured the bigger picture:

• A catalyst, not just a course. FBA is positioned as a capacity-building engine for manufacturers, regulators, and the wider value chain—bridging R&D, technical consulting, and professional training to shorten cycles and improve cost-in-use.
  
• Market-fit skills. Coverage emphasized Africa’s youthful, fast-changing demand and the need for stronger formulation, smarter flavour application, and regulatory fluency to scale responsibly.
  
• Leadership voice. Finwerd leadership described FBA as a “handshake of collaboration, innovation, and shared ambition”—investing in local talent while sharing global best practices.
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Commercial Signal from Day One

FBA wasn’t just a classroom—it opened a pipeline. The launch generated 14 qualified leads and near-term sales opportunities across sweetening solutions, new CSD concepts, and energy drink briefs from leading brands (e.g., Chi, Sinalco, Heineken, Euro Global, Cubana Trading, IDL).
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What’s Next

• Annualize & Expand: Institutionalize FBA as a yearly program with a growing West Africa footprint and deeper hands-on sessions.
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• From Class to Plant: Pair modules with line-trial clinics (stability + cost-in-use readouts) so teams leave with implementable change, not slides.
  
• Community of Practice: Create an alumni network for benchmarking, regulatory updates, and shared troubleshooting across Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon.
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About Finwerd Beverage Academy

FBA is Finwerd’s training and knowledge-exchange arm, focused on Beverage Innovation, Application & Technical Production—translating flavour science, sweetening strategy, processing, packaging, and NAFDAC/ECOWAS compliance into practical, plant-ready skills.