Lonza Reports its “Strongest First Quarter in History” as it Reshapes Specialty Ingredients Portfolio

Though it didn’t disclose any financial numbers, the Swiss maker of pharmaceutical ingredients said that the strong Q1 was due to “good results” in speciality ingredients.

 

Richard Ridinger, chief executive of Lonza, said: “The ongoing improvement projects that emphasize organic growth, stringent portfolio management and operational excellence are proving to be successful.”

 

Proving more details, Lonza executive Dominik Werner, speaking to FoodIngredientsFirst, said the move to reshape the portfolio by focusing more on higher-value items, which dates back to 2012, was bearing fruit.

 

Werner said: “We are looking at which activities are really competitive, where can we provide higher values. This is something we stated in a major transformation of the company back in 2012.”

 

“There we had different work streams, such as operational excellence, portfolio management, cash management etc. And so we are working on those different streams.”

 

As examples of changes to the portfolio, Werner pointed to:
1) Enhancement of its vitamin B3 offerings by bringing solutions for cosmetic applications to the market.
2) The Expansion of its L-Carnitine applications for use in nutrition products.
3) Its Speciality Ingredients team is drawing on industrial biotechnology as a platform to expand into new bio-based offerings.
4) Ridinger replaced Stefan Borgas as chief executive, who was pushed out of the company amid a steep fall in earnings. Ridinger is looking to focus the business more on chemicals.