KEY INTERVIEW: Clean Label and Functional Platforms Will be Key to BENEO Growth

22 Dec 2015 --- Andreas Herber was appointed as the new member of the executive board of directors at BENEO GmbH in September 2015, where he is now overseeing the areas of production and operations, new business development, as well as nutrition science, regulatory affairs and food application (BENEO-Institute and BENEO-Technology Center). He is also responsible for corporate communications, HR and IT.

“In terms of growth opportunities for the company, the BENEO product portfolio allows customers to develop and introduce their own tasty products,” says Herber. “Our products can make our customers’ offerings better in the areas of specialized nutrition and convenience.”

BENEO is currently active in four areas: functional fibers and carbohydrates, functional proteins, and specialty rice ingredients. “These products cater for very stable trends for the industry with regards to consumer preferences currently,” explains Herber. “Those platforms offer for example solutions for weight management, sugar replacement, fat replacement and meat replacement. We’re happy with all those platforms. For example, we can provide fiber enrichment and that gives significant health benefits and can contribute to sugar reduction.”

“One area that is very important is taste – our products can contribute to good taste as well as being based on sound nutritional science. Ultimately, if it doesn’t taste good, then the consumer won’t consume it,” he adds.

A major investment in 2015 has been in the clean label area, with particular reference to the rice starch offering. However, it will also contribute to the company’s ability to offer further products with functional benefits as well. “We have been investing in a new rice starch technology to be able to offer more products with clean label properties early next year. Rice starches focus on texturizing properties and clean label rather than health. We are further investing in customer-oriented application technology, for example by strengthening our meat application platform,” says Herber. 

“We also have a range of functional carbohydrates that support the trends for weight management – Palatinose [isomaltulose] is the main product; it is a functional carbohydrate derived from sugar and has good properties in blood glucose management.”

Another example is functional fibers derived from chicory root. The process is based on gentle water extraction and avoids chemicals and artificial processing. “The chicory root offers a 3-in-1 solution – good taste, fiber fortification – we all need more fiber in our daily diet – and the third point is that inulin helps to reduce calorie intake in a natural way, which fits in with/meets the global trend for weight loss. A recent global survey reveals that 50% of consumers are trying actively to lose weight, so our product fits in well there,” he notes. 

Herber concluded by speaking about how the company plans to move forward and grow. As well as organic growth, which may be very successful in the short term, the company would not exclude the possibility of acquisitions, he said. “To summarize, we are in a global market environment and well-positioned to meet the positive global trends which we think are stable. I do not exclude acquisitions as a possibility, but we do not have an active strategy in this area. In principle, we would be open to the idea, but also think we have lots of opportunities with our platforms.” 

“We will continue to focus on R&D, nutritional science, applications, technology and customer support,” says Herber. “We want to push BENEO forward and it’s nice/good to see that the market is there. I’m confident that we can grow successfully. There are areas for organic evolution, as for e.g. weight management is showing strong growth in developed Western countries such as Europe and the US. But we see also more growth today in the developing markets, particularly in the Asian market and our sales hub in Singapore is supporting our growth in Asia,” concluded Herber.