A World of Flavours Lucta Group, a leading Spanish and international flavour, fragrance and feed additive producer, has enjoyed seven decades of progressive growth. Today, the company runs a global operation and looks at further expansion.
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ucta, a specialist in flavours for the food and drink industries, feed additives for animal nutrition and wellbeing, commemorates its 70th anniversary in 2019. The family-owned business has developed into a global player with a footprint on four continents and an excellent market image. “The company has a matrix organisation, with functional and geographical hierarchies. This fosters international cooperation across business units and allows autonomy and decision making on a regional level, as attachment to local preferences is deeply rooted in the human experience, and because social and cultural differences vary from one geographic region to another,” explains Mr Manuel Garcia, the Group Director of the Flavours Division. He points out that Lucta’s global operation today includes five creative centres and five manufacturing sites with 993 associates of 35 different nationalities. “Our extraordinarily talented and experienced human team has been one of the factors behind our 96 Industry Europe
market growth. Our skills level is high - every other employee of our company has a university degree, and almost one out of three work in the R&D area.”
Growth by innovation Traditionally, the Group’s core business has been divided into three divisions - Flavours, Fragrances and Feed Additives. A fourth, Innovation Division, was added a few years ago, with an exclusive dedication to the development of innovative skills and technologies essential to provide the industry with new products, says Mr Garcia. “We are engaged in expanding our flavour application laboratories, in order to further support our customers’ product developments.” “While our global flavour sales grew by a modest 24 per cent, in Europe we have recorded an organic growth of 45 per cent during the last three years, which is memorable in the mature food and drink markets we serve.”
