POWERED
Ingredients specialist Solina has over 40 years’ experience designing customised savoury solutions for the food industry, food service, butchery and nutrition markets. Group Communications Manager Alexander Wyckstandt described Solina’s distinctive company structure, and the benefits this unusual model brings to customers, in discussion with Phil Nicholls.
Forthe last 10 years especially, Solina has grown steadily through a series of targeted mergers and acquisitions to build the brand and consolidate the company’s package of savoury solutions. Yet Solina remains agile and flexible, thanks to the unusual layout of its organisation which enhances the portfolio of bespoke products and services offered to clients.
“Solina’s USP is the fact that we are mul tifaceted,” explained Group Communications Manager Alexander Wyckstandt. “Compared to the big global players, our organisational structure is decentralised, resembling a flotilla of numerous companies grouped together. While we steer the business from a central point, the smaller ‘vessels’ set their own course. The whole flotilla
The roots of Solina stretch back to 1988 with the creation of Saveur in France, producing savoury ingredient solutions. Founder Eric Terré steadily expanded Saveur until 2012 when the company merged with Belgian enterprise Sfinc and became Solina. This marked the start of a remarkable 10-year trajectory characterised by an impressive organic growth and targeted, diversified mergers and acquisitions.
Solina has acquired at least one company in every year of its existence, except for Covid-hit 2020. Most of these new businesses were in the food processing industry. In parallel, Solina strength ened its presence in foodservice with Essential Cuisine in the UK and Berthelet in Canada, and butchery channels, focusing on bringing culinary savoury ingredients to all suitable markets.
Ingredient solutions
Solina initially specialised in dry solutions, but has progressively diversified into coating solutions, represented by Bowman Ingredients, and liquid solutions by acquiring very specific busi nesses in France Sauces & Créations and Atelier D2i, and in the United Kingdom, Zafron Foods. These latest acquisitions in 2022 ensure that Solina is balanced between the three categories of ingredient solutions.
“In terms of ingredient capabilities, we offer dry solutions, liquid solutions and coating solutions,” said Mr Wyckstandt. “We are a partner for the food manufacturing industries pro ducing meat, potato, fish, vegetables, everything that is related to savoury.
“What Solina actually sells in the strict sense is semi-finished ingredient compounds. We source ingredients from all over
the world, then add science and knowledge to provide what we call integrated ingredients solutions to our clients. By inte grated I mean mostly the combination of taste, functionality and nutrition.”
Bespoke creations
Solina provides a unique co-creation model combining culinary flair and technical excellence, helping clients find the taste solu tion they need for a product. The challenge might be anything from a natural solution-based charcuterie product or improving the nutritional profile of a snack product to enhancing the taste and texture of a plant-based burger. This collaboration model is backed up by an extensive portfolio of after-sales support.
The development of any Solina product is a close partnership with the client, according to Mr Wyckstandt: “We deeply analyse the proposal, including how this issue is positioned in the market, how the client’s competitors approach it, and the consumer’s view on this specific application. Solina enriches the customer with data and insights, then finds a specific solution that might even exceed their initial thoughts and expectations.
“Alongside the ingredient solution, Solina offers a package of additional support. We support on the configuration of the manu facturing process; provide culinary advice, logistic support and marketing advice. Our customers receive semi-finished ingredient compounds, plus an entire portfolio of value-adding services to design commercially successful products in the end.”
Solina’s development philosophy is to compose custom com pounds that guarantee the best possible eating experience, including the taste, nutrition and specific sustainability require ments of consumers. The core challenge for food manufacturers is to incorporate the demands of the market in an integrated way without compromising the number one criterion: taste.
“We deeply analyse the proposal, including how this issue is positioned in the market, how the client’s competitors approach it, and the consumer’s view on this specific application. Solina enriches the customer with data and insights, then finds a specif ic solution that might even exceed their initial thoughts and expectations”
Global and local Solina currently generates €820 million turnover, employing over 2,700 people across 35 production sites in Europe and North America. It is this dispersed structure at Solina which builds the flotilla model for the company and offers clients the combined benefits of local knowledge and global reach.
“We often call it a ‘glocal’ approach,” Mr Wyckstandt explained, “because we are both global and local. Given our growth trajectory, we started with a very local approach, which is what characterises every company within Solina. We added an international layer, where we find the synergies between these different entities and take leverage from each other’s initiatives.”
Tight cooperation between Solina’s flotilla of companies is one
key to the pro cess of developing new products in response to market trends. This innovative mindset led to the creation of plant-based foods that please consumers with regards to taste, nutritional and functional attributes. Solina possesses advanced knowledge of processing and production technologies to conceive meat- and fish-alternative prototypes for customers, gaining experience about the interplay between ingredients and technology. This research defined Solina as a frontrunner in the innovation of plant-based meat alternatives
At the heart of Solina’s innovation is the NEXTERA® package of plant-based pro teins, heralding the next era of food. Developments in this field include vegan tuna and the vegan ‘folie gras’ that reached the final of French supermarket chain
“Solina possesses advanced knowledge of processing and productiontechnologies to conceive meat-and fish-alternative prototypes for customers,gaining experience about the interplay between ingredients and technology.This research defined Solina as a frontrunner in the innovation ofplant-based meat alternatives”
Carrefour’s plant-based food compe tition in 2022. The strength of the NEX TERA line lies in its flexibility, as it is not tied to spe cific ingredients. Solina can thus propose multiple options based on the client’s requirements, for both the ingredients and the preferred applied technology.
Sustainable growth
The dispersed flotilla of Solina companies enables the company to be agile and flexible when responding to challenges in the global supply chain. The company is equally committed to sus tainability, with the appointment of Ellen Madsen as Group Sustainability Director in 2022. Ms Madsen will drive forward Solina’s sustainability commitments (5Ps: people, planet, part ners, performance and products & solutions) by embedding those into the overall strategy.
The Sustainability Board at Solina is supported by a committee of Sustainability Ambassadors and a team of Sustainability Volunteers spread across the group. The whole team implements Solina’s Sustainability Integration Roadmap, consisting of six sus tainability integration topics with 15 workstreams. The Roadmap was designed to focus Solina’s sustainability integration to 2023 and contribute to a more sustainable agri-food value chain and industry. These commitments and actions apply to all aspects of Solina’s business with the overall goal of making food matter for people and the planet.
Alongside concern for a more sustainable food chain, Solina is also focused on sustaining its momentum for growth and expan sion. The plan is to maintain the pace of mergers and acquisitions , while simultaneously leveraging the synergies created by the latest companies to join Solina.
“We are also looking at the digital transformation of our ser vices,” explained Mr Wyckstandt, “all to support our clients better, by providing the proper tools, data and information. Solina enjoys a leading position in the European market within the savoury food industry. The target is now to achieve a similar position in North America over the coming years.
“We are a very healthy company,” Mr Wyckstandt concluded, “there is so much potential.” n
