Houno’s open innovation model comes up trumps

19 May 23

Houno will be presented with a prestigious Red Dot award next month after its new Invoq combi ovens were judged to be best in their class for design.

It will collect the ‘Red Dot: Best of the Best’ award – the highest accolade attainable – Dot award at a ceremony in Essen, Germany on 19 June.

The Middleby-owned brand, which is based in Denmark, released the ovens to UK dealers earlier this year after an extensive six-year development process.

It involved close collaboration with six of its closest OEM partners around the world – Lincat, Levens Middleby, Blodgett, BKI and Dieta – in order to build a range of products suitable for restaurants, bakeries and supermarkets.

The number of components in the ovens has been halved and energy consumption reduced by 70% versus the previous generation of ovens.

Morten Ammentorp Nielsen, the company’s president, said: “I am very proud of this award, which emphasises that we have succeeded with our innovative design approach and that we have created a user experience matching our customers’ demands.

“At the same time, we have lifted ourselves from having a traditional business set-up with global OEM dealers to strategically involving them in our open innovation model, which enables us to now position ourselves at the very top with a global joint product brand consisting of a complete oven series for the professional kitchen and foodservice industry.

“This recognition marks the culmination of a series of strategic efforts that began nearly a decade ago including a successfully implemented collaborative innovation forum strategy and the creation of a powerful global product brand bringing me a great sense of pride and accomplishment when now handing over this legacy.”