Lesaffre Strengthens Position in Bio-Sourced Ingredients With Omniabios and Agrauxine

7 Feb 2014 --- Antoine Baule, CEO of Lesaffre, has presented the company's development ambitions on its traditional baking market as well as in the taste and nutrition & health sectors, and in emerging domains like plant bio-protection and green chemistry. He illustrated the company's growth ambitions by announcing two recent acquisitions: Omniabios in Italy, and Agrauxine in France.

An ambitious growth strategy in the bio-sourced ingredients domain Lesaffre has been investing in the development of taste and nutrition-health applications for at least 40 years now.

"There is significant overlap between our core business, developing yeast and baking ingredients, and the bio-sourced ingredients (yeast, bacteria, enzymes, etc.) used in nutrition, health and some aspects of environmental protection," stated Antoine Baule, CEO of Lesaffre.

As a living organism, yeast can have excellent probiotic qualities. The nutritional content of inactive yeast has numerous health and well-being benefits for humans, animals and plants. It can be used in a wide variety of applications, including cosmetics, pharmacy, biotechnology, and agriculture. Lesaffre also intends to extend its market share in emerging domains like plant bio-protection and green chemistry (notably as regards the development of second generation bioethanol).

Indeed, Lesaffre's ambitions on these markets have now been clearly stated. By stepping up its sales presence, intensifying development and increasing its production capacity, Lesaffre intends to earn 30% of its revenues in these domains in five years' time.

This growth ambition is underscored by two recent acquisitions:

In December 2013, Lesaffre acquired Omniabios, an Italian company with specific expertise in purifying the S-Adanosyl-L-methionine molecule (or SAMe). SAMe is a natural product of the human body, and used to produce other molecules, including hormones, proteins, brain chemical messengers, and natural antioxidants.

As a food supplement, it is primarily used to relieve osteoarthritis and depression. "This acquisition bolsters Lesaffre's offering with a key product. It is a sound external growth operation that complies fully with our development strategy," states Antoine Baule.

Last week, Lesaffre concluded a further acquisition: Agrauxine , a French company located near Angers. Agrauxine specialises in plant bio-control and bio-nutrition. Its products are developed using natural microorganisms, fungi and bacteria, and used to nourish and protect crops in an environmentally respectful manner. Its accredited offering includes products that target grapevine trunk diseases, a blight that affects wine growers across the world and for which there was hitherto no solution. Lesaffre also intends to defend and consolidate its strategic market position in its core business domain: baking.

Population growth and new eating habits mean that global demand for bread and baking products will continue both growing and changing. Lesaffre is fully committed to maintaining a tailored yeast, ingredients and services offering in each of the world’s major regions. Lesaffre intends to defend and consolidate its position on the baking market, leveraging cutting-edge technology to develop new product offerings (liquid yeast for traditional bakers, yeast for acidic dough, etc. ). To this end, Lesaffre's global sales network and 30 Baking Centers provide invaluable support.

Launched 40 years ago, this network of 30 technical centres now spans five continents. It constitutes an international benchmark within the baking profession, supporting its changing needs and the Group's expansion into new yeast and baking ingredients markets. These centres of expertise, technology and innovation work hand-in-hand with traditional and industrial bakers and distributors around the world. As it extends its business coverage, expertise and network links even further, the Baking Center network will continue to play a vital role in supporting Lesaffre's customers.