Solanic, a New Subsidiary Established by Avebe

06/02/07 The Dutch potato starch group Avebe is investing millions of euros in its new subsidiary, Solanic. This company will use breakthrough technology to extract high-performance proteins for the food and drug industries. Avebe announced that this is one of the ways through which it intends to achieve new profit growth in the coming years.

With the divestment of all non-strategic activities and the completion of the restructuring in 2006, the company's re-engineering is now complete. The year 2007 marks the beginning of a phase of renewed profit growth, based on innovation.

An initiative is already on track with Eliane, a high-performance potato starch, which was introduced last year. An additional key initiative is the creation of the Solanic subsidiary, which is tasked with creating new value from potatoes; refining, developing and marketing non-starch based ingredients from the potato with a high added value; opening up new applications and/or markets; and creating new sources of profit for Avebe.

Solanic says it has a very promising breakthrough innovation in the pipeline: high-performance proteins that possess unique properties for application in the food and pharmaceutical industries. The company says the proteins offer food manufacturers advantages over animal proteins, although the specific advantages are not named.

The new company has patented its products and entered exclusive cooperation agreements with partners such as the Danish technology company Upfront, and Skintec, which is affiliated with the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam.

This autumn, Solanic will start commercial production of these products. Okke Koo, chairman of the AVEBE board, said, "In the next few years, AVEBE intends to grow its profit considerably, and making investments in innovation is crucial to that goal. In addition to starch, potatoes contain other high-quality components, which can deliver value to the food and drug industries. This provides AVEBE with very attractive prospects for the future. The first responses from the market have been very enthusiastic."