ONE SeedPod, Scotland’s food and drink innovation hub, has announced award-winning Vanilla Farms as its first tenant as it opens for business, following completion of its commissioning phase.
The hub, developed and operated by Opportunity North East (ONE), provides a unique combination of food-safe manufacturing and development kitchens and specialist support to empower businesses to innovate, scale and succeed in competitive markets.
The new build is part of the Aberdeen City Region Deal and includes 11 food-safe manufacturing kitchens, new product development and pilot plant kitchens and a demonstration kitchen. It is home to the ecosystem supporting the sector’s growth in north east Scotland.
ONE co-funded ONE SeedPod with the UK Government, Scottish Government, Just Transition Fund and Scottish Enterprise. Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) is the strategic partner and ONE SeedPod is located on its Craibstone Campus near Aberdeen.
Aberdeenshire-based Vanilla Farms is pioneering premium vanilla production using sustainable, high-tech agriculture and science-led flavour innovation. In May, the business was awarded £150,000 through the inaugural Missions EDGE prize at Scottish EDGE 25, backed by Scottish Enterprise, recognising its potential to transform the natural flavour industry.
David Kilshaw OBE, chair of ONE SeedPod, said: “We are delighted to welcome Vanilla Farms as ONE SeedPod’s first tenant. In recent weeks, customers including Associated Seafoods, Queen Margaret University, and Scotland Food & Drink have used ONE SeedPod, and this fantastic hub is now fully commissioned and open for business.
“ONE SeedPod’s combination of facilities, support and community enables ambitious founders and leaders to innovate and thrive in a collaborative, entrepreneurial community focused on accelerating growth. We have significant interest from across Scotland in the food-safe manufacturing kitchens, technical know-how and ecosystem here. We now look forward to helping Scotland’s innovative food and drink businesses scale faster and reach new heights,” said Mr Kilshaw.
Gillian Lane, Co- Founder of Vanilla Farms, said: “Vanilla Farms is proud to be the first tenant at ONE SeedPod. This facility offers the ideal launchpad for our next stage of growth — from pioneering vanilla cultivation to scaling sustainable flavour innovation here in Scotland. The purpose-built production kitchens, advanced NPD and food demonstration facilities, combined with expert support and a vibrant entrepreneurial community, make SeedPod a perfect fit for our ambitions. We’re excited to bring something bold and new to the food and fragrance industry from this base.”
Professor Wayne Powell, SRUC Principal and CEO, said: “We could not be more pleased to celebrate this milestone for ONE SeedPod, located within our Craibstone campus. Vanilla Farms is the ideal first tenant given their strong focus on quality, innovation, and sustainability – priorities which perfectly align with SRUC’s own. We look forward to working closely with them in the near future.”
Vanilla Farms is being advised on its expansion by Johnston Carmichael, which sponsors Scottish EDGE. Adam Hardie, partner and Head of Food and Drink at Johnston Carmichael, said: “Vanilla Farms is a fantastic Scottish business, which spotted a gap in the market and used their knowledge and experience of the food and drink industry to deliver a clever new solution. It’s extremely rewarding to be working with Gillian and Joe as they bring their product to the marketplace and place Scotland on the global vanilla map for the very first time.”
