PROVA is a specialist producer of sweet brown flavoring with over 75 years’ experience. President Muriel Acat-Vergnet related PROVA’s blend of luxury products and corporate responsibility in conversation with Phil Nicholls.
Morethan just a producer of gourmet vanilla flavoring, PROVA is deeply committed to enhancing the lives of the Malagasy farmers growing the vanilla. Through PROVA’s Care & Act programme and the NGO VDB it established, the com pany is improving life on Madagascar and beyond.
Formed in 1946, the PROVA family business was built around a new vanilla extraction method developed by Marcel Acat and Hugo Oiler. The company steadily flourished from its launch in a small workshop outside Paris. In 1973 PROVA expanded to a new manufacturing plant in Autruy-sur-Juine, south of Paris in the Loiret department. This 8,000 sqm facility initially focused on vanilla, but expanded into cocoa and coffee extraction, the trio forming the basis of PROVA’s range today.
“We want to be the natural choice for sweet brown flavors in the hearts and minds of our customers,” explained President Muriel Acat-Vergnet, describing the range of flavoring available at PROVA. At the heart of PROVA is vanilla, where the company began.
This ‘queen of spices’ is available in a range of extracts solubl e in oil, dairy or water. Vanilla is also offered in powdered form or as PROVANIL, PROVA’s replacement solution for vanillin and ethyl vanillin. Vanilla is sourced from Madagascar, the world’s n umber once producer of best Bourbon quality vanilla, along with Comoros, Uganda, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Tahiti.
Part of the PROVA portfolio since 1985, cocoa flavors are created i n a range of chocolate notes and pairing perfectly with toffee, hazelnut and vanilla. The PROVA cocoa extracts and flavours offer a rich, indulgent chocolate profile compared to normal cocoa powder. PROVA began coffee extraction in 1990, creating a line of coffee extracts and flavours. The coffee flavour palate is cus tomised for each market and available in water, oil and milk soluble options.
The team of flavorists at PROVA have developed a product port folio across the full palette of brown flavoring, both sweet and savoury. The five main flavour families are gourmet, caramel, nuts, dairy and alcohol. PROVA also offers an organic range certi fied by ECOCERT: FR-BIO-01- Organic Label. The organic range includes vanilla, cocoa, coffee and chestnuts, plus recent addi tions of coconut and hazelnut.
Finally, the rise in plant-based proteins has lead PROVA’s flavourists to develop a library of masking flavors to counter the nutty, grassy, bitter or earthy taste of these proteins. To prevent unwanted tastes spoiling a product, the PROVA flavor chemists a nd application scientists work with the customer to find a flavour solution to satisfy the consumer.
Ingredients for success
“We recently announced the acquisition of a new industrial sit e about two hours away from our current factory which will help us grow much faster and reassure customers,” Ms Acat-Vergnet said. “Our historical site will focus on extraction, while the new factory will do the blending and additional activities.”
The new factory in Montrichard in Loir-et-Cher is planned to open in 2023 after a refurbishment programme. Despite this new acquisition, PROVA remains headquartered in the Montreuil suburb of Paris. PROVA has 350 employees world wide, with offices in the US and a hub in Bangkok, Thailand.
For a mid-sized company like PROVA, Ms Acat-Vergnet identi fied two ingredients for success: “Firstly, you need a product that finds its market and that differentiates itself from the competitors. Secondly, you have to build a great team, where there’s a lot of cohesion, people feel good and communicate well together.”
The ability of PROVA to create bespoke flavors is part of the company’s USP.
“We stand apart from our competitors because we focus on our speciality,” explained Ms Acat-Vergnet. “We are not working wide , we go deep into a shorter portfolio, deeper in our specialities. By deepening our areas of expertise, we can produce tailor-made products and that’s the strength of PROVA; we tailor our product s to exactly meet our customers’ needs.”
Driven by the ambition to go even further, our company started a new initiative to accompany its vanilla offering. PROVA begins a new chapter in 2022 for sustainable vanilla open for all our cus tomers. This program is designed around five bold objectives, measured by sixty indicators that ensure the quality and trace ability of all its actions. This innovative and inspiring approach reflects the deep, human character of PROVA; a company with the longstanding tradition of sustainable development in Madagascar.
PROVA Care & Act
In an expansion of Ms Acat-Vergnet’s second ingredient for success, PROVA is deeply engaged in improving the lives of its suppliers in Madagascar. Back in 2013, PROVA launched the NGO Vanille Durable Bemanevika (VDB), promoting sustainable vanilla in and around the northern Madagascan town of Bemanevika. VDB’s pro gramme in Madagascar includes the development of supple mental agricultural activities, education provisions, and the supply of medical equipment.
VDB is just one aspect of the broader PROVA Care & Act philos ophy stretching from Madagascar to France. The team at PROVA care about each other and the impact of the business, taking action to sup port sustainable initiatives. The implementation of Care & Act princi ples focuses on four main areas: vanilla, taste, planet and society.
As with so much at PROVA, Care & Act begins with vanilla. The company supports a sustainable and ethical vanilla industry,
“As with so much at PROVA, Care & Act begins with vanilla. The company supports a sustainable and ethical vanilla industry, operating respectfully and supporting the local community of farmers”
operating respectfully and supporting the local community of farmers. PROVA is also committed to enhancing the taste, quality and authenticity of all its products. Thanks to the company’s unique extraction methods, PROVA’s products preserve the essential flavors and tastes for an incomparable flavors signature.
Care & Act also addresses broader issues by committing the company to act in a manner that preserves the planet’s ecosystem and ensures that PROVA’s activities have only a positive impact on the environment. Finally, the programme strives to ensure social equity among all PROVA’s employees and partners.
As one of the pillars of Care & Act, sustainability is a thread running through the history of PROVA. VDB is only one strand of the company’s support for vanilla farmers. PROVA is also a member of the Sustainable Vanilla Initiative (SVI), working along side more than 25 international companies including Mars and Firmenich. SVI is a voluntary industry initiative, which aims to promote the long-term stable supply of high-quality, natural vanilla, produced in a socially, environmentally and economically sustainable way, benefitting all partners along the value chain.
Spirit of adventure
PROVA’s Cocoa and Vanilla Joint Project in collaboration with cocoa producer Barry Callebaut works to stabilise the revenue of vanilla farmers through the introduction of cocoa farming. The project also hopes to encourage more companies to innovate and adopt a part nership model.
Finally, PROVA is involved in Livelihoods Fund for Family Farming, Livelihood 3F, an impact investment fund created by Danone, Firmenich, Mars and Veolia to foster sustainability and povertyreduction in supply chains. This pro gramme allows PROVA to work altruistically with other companies in a spirit of cooperation and col laboration as the best way to improve the sector as a whole.
Given PROVA’s extensive commitment to sustainable farming, it is no surprise that the company was an early entrant into organic.
“We were one of the first vanilla extractors to start buying organic vanilla back in 1996 in Madagascar, when they started the organic programme certification,” said Ms Acat-Vergnet. “PROVA is now more and more involved in sustainable vanilla sourcing in Madagascar and in other countries. We want to push organic sourcing with an objective of buying 50% of our vanilla sustainably in the next 8 to 10 years.”
PROVA is dedicated to making life better for its partners up and down the supply chain.
“Corporate responsibility is at the heart of our strategy,” Ms AcatVergnet concluded. “My objective is to keep the company at a human scale. I want to make the team into a great team who are happy to work here. What I love about PROVA is not only the great products we’re making, but that it’s a human adventure.” n
www.prova.fr
