Chr. Hansen completes world's largest dairy culture factory

01/09/05 Chr. Hansen has celebrated the conclusion of a large construction project, which has resulted in new laboratories, offices, and not at least an expansion of the existing dairy culture factory in Arpajon, France. The larger factory has a production capacity double of the original plant. The construction budget is DKK 120 million.

"In spite of rising competition, Chr. Hansen continues to play a key role in the majority of dairy products, which can be found on the shelves in supermarkets. From a marketing point of view, we have moved ahead of the competition over the past couple of years, and we intend to do everything to keep that position," says Lars Frederiksen, CEO and President at Chr. Hansen.

Chr. Hansen produces cultures at its factories in Denmark, the US, Germany and France. It is at the existing site in Arpajon - located approximately an hour's drive from Paris, by the Orge river - that Chr. Hansen has build new laboratories, offices and not at least has expanded the existing factory for dairy cultures.

"The new factory is state-of-the-art. We have taken all the best characteristics from our existing factories and made this one better, larger and more automated," explains Lars Frederiksen. The new factory operates at double the capacity of the initial Chr. Hansen factory.

Frederiksen notes that the reason for expanding the factory in Arpajon is consistent with Chr. Hansen's on-going goal of being close to its clients.

"We have a large client base in France, and also there is room for yet another fermentor at the factory," Frederiksen states.

In Arpajon Chr. Hansen manufactures approximately 200 different lactic acid cultures. In particular, cultures produced for use in dairy products have been the fastest growing market within food ingredients over the past couple of years. Chr. Hansen boasts 40% of the revenues in this market.

Chr. Hansen, headquartered in Hørsholm, Denmark, produces functional ingredients for the food industries. While, the increase in demand for food ingredients is currently a modest 2%, the demand for cultures has been rising at nearly double that rate.

"We built the extension of our factory in response to the rapid growth in sales of dairy cultures, and to meet the concurrent market demands," says Frederiksen.

Knud Vindfeldt, Vice President of Marketing of Cultures adds: "What we are experiencing right now is the result of our strategic and goal-oriented efforts that we have made vis-à-vis the food industry over the past 5 to 10 years. It is innovation, ambition and hard work that have driven us to where we are today, not simply a single key product or positive growth within a specific segment. The growth we are witnessing now is widely spread across many countries, segments and industries, and we have only seen the tip of the iceberg."