ROQUETTE Press Kit

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An independent and international group

A strategy, sustainable innovation

An independent family owned and run group A world leader in five large industry sectors A fast-growing group Starch processing More than 650 products growing non-stop

Cementing leadership Innovation that lasts plant-chemistry nutrition-health Pushing ahead with geographical development

Worldwide presence Europe and the Group’s first expansion drive Conquering new markets in the Americas and Asia

Lestrem, the Group’s roots and headquarters The Group’s main production plant An unrivalled position Powerful regional impact Europe’s main starch Factory

Expertise, pushing product efficiency levels higher Starch’s limitless properties One molecule, many applications Quality standards that set the pace Longstanding partnerships with clients

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Contents

Press Kit Summary December 2008

Research, a fundamental priority The innovation instinct Five recent milestones €40 million a year for research

Appendices Appendice 1

Key facts & figures

Appendice 2 Milestones

Appendice 3

Zoom-in: Roquette and the environment

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Starch processing Roquette turns renewable resources – corn, wheat, potatoes and peas – into an extensive range of high-quality products that it sells to client industrial firms in a wide variety of business sectors, which in turn use them to manufacture products for consumer markets.

Roquette extracts and separates potato, corn, wheat and pea ingredients. Starch, a glucose polymer, is the main reserve carbohydrate in those grains. It also uses the other fractions (proteins, germ oil, cellulose, etc.).

Our production systems meet the tightest processing, safety and environmental standards, and mirror our company-wide innovative and quality drive spanning our production process and products alike.

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An Anindependent independent

More than 650 products growing non-stop

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and international group and international group

More than 650 products in our starch-derivative range enable us to adjust to evolving demand on an ongoing basis.

An independent family owned and run group

Our range encompasses six categories:

32%

The Roquette Group was established 75 years ago, and has since grown from a French family business to rank among the world’s top four starch companies. It turns more than 6 million tons of renewable agricultural raw materials – corn, wheat, potatoes and peas – into starch and starch derivatives every year.

24%

2% 9% 24%

9%

Marc Roquette has been chairman of the Group since 2004, when he took over from Dominique Roquette, the son of one of the two brothers who had founded the company.

This Group’s stable group of shareholders and its independence contribute considerably to its efforts to roll out its sustainable-development strategy in synch with the investment levels its business line entails.

Starches Sugars and soluble fibers Polyols Proteins and derivatives Fibers and oil Fermentation and fine chemicals Roquette centered its strategy on R&D very early on – in the early 1950s.

That, at least in part, explains its staggering diversification.

Interview

Contents An independent family owned and run group A world leader in five large industry sectors A fast-growing group Starch processing More than 650 products growing non-stop

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Roquette is a great family business and its international presence is really in a class of its own. Its innovative muscle and development drive are remarkable.

I see the fact that Roquette is a family business as an advantage: it has a long-term vision, and does not have to rush to meet quarterly-result forecasts or please financial analysts. As long as the family has the financial resources it needs to develop the company, and it seems to have them, that’s a real strength.”

Massimo Selmo, Purchasing Officer at Barry Callebaut, a leading manufacturer of first-class cocoa and chocolate (Switzerland).

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A world leader in five large industry sectors Roquette processes crops to serve five major industry sectors.

Breakdown by volume: 15%

14% 50% 12% 9%

Human food Animal food Paper and corrugated board Pharmaceuticals and cosmetics Chemicals and bio-industry Roquette is ranks among the top starchindustry players (n°2 in Europe and n°4 worldwide).

Roquette is the world leading polyol manufacturer (sorbitol, mannitol, maltitol, etc.). These polyols are used to make vitamin C, toothpaste, mouthwash and sugarfree confectionery (chewing gum and chocolate, for instance). Sugar-free chewing gum, as an aside, has come to rank among the most popular products in its category – with market shares hovering near or above the 90% mark – in Europe, in North America, in Japan and in other countries.

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Roquette is ranks also among the world leading injectable-substance manufacturer (dextrose essentially).

Every day, more than 1.5 million patients around the globe receive injections containing pyrogen-free Roquette products (which are so pure that they do not trigger a fever reaction). Our trailblazing hydrolysis and purification systems deliver glucose (dextrose) quality grades free from any pyrogen substances and fit the most stringent pharmacopeias.

Roquette is now harnessing the experience that it has acquired as a worldclass manufacturer of cationic starches for the papermaking industry to develop groundbreaking biopolymers to replace petroleum-derived and other classical chemicals. A few examples follow: - Alternatives to petroleum-derived latex for coating paper - Modified starches, which consume less energy than refining (for paper napkins, kitchen rolls, etc.)

- Lower energy consumption and chemical use for corrugated board On the human nutrition front, Roquette is Europe’s leading manufacturer of maltodextrins, which are mainly used in baby milk. The Group has developed what it calls a Premium line to deliver unrivalled safety standards and products that can be easily mixed into powdered milk to make products that babies can easily digest.

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A fast-growing group The Group’s total sales totalled more than €2.5 billion in 2007. That figure has grown fivefold over the past 25 years and 50% over the past decade. It generates two-thirds of its revenues in the European Union, one-fifth in North America and the rest in other countries (notably in Asia).

Worldwide presence Roquette’s efficient sales network has built up its presence on every continent. The Group owns and runs 30 operations (production units and offices) on 3 continents (15 in the EU, 2 in the US, 1 in Mexico, 10 in Asia and 2 in India).

It has enjoyed regular and sustained growth in Europe – its historical home turf or “region” – and moved into the US and Asia more recently. Succinctly, it cemented its presence in Europe in the 1960s, and went on to invest in the US in the early 1980s, in China and Korea in 2001, in Japan in 2002, in India in 2006, and in Russia in 2008.

main site and headquarters. Its total headcount has grown 33% in ten years (and stood at 4,600 employees in 1998, up from 3,300 in 1983). It is also building up its staff in Asia, where it is developing new operations, today.

A powerful partner in the farming sector Every year, the Group processes 6 million tons of agricultural raw materials from 550,000 hectares of land, including 3.5 million tons in France alone which are grown in France.

Ongoing investment The starch industry is capital intensive (mainly in terms of building and maintaining industrial operations). On average, Roquette reinvests more than 10% of its revenues in its industrial capacity and R&D every year.

Constantly-growing workforce Roquette currently employs more than 6,000 people worldwide. Some 3,600 of them are based in France, including 3,000 in Lestrem (in Nord-Pas de Calais, northern France), the Group’s

Interview I would say that one of Roquette’s distinctive fea“ tures is that it runs its operations centrally while adjusting to local specifics. They take all the decisions in Lestrem but, if you have a problem in Italy or in the UK, there is always someone there to help you out. They have a very healthy balance between central and local.

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Alfred Schlosser, European Purchasing Manager, Nestlé Purina Petcare (Germany)

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Roquette has been rolling out its international sales-development strategy through agents and subsidiaries for decades. It started unfurling its industrial-development strategy more recently and indeed now runs more operations outside France than within it.

That is how it can deliver consistently outstanding quality across its international customer base.

30 operations on 3 continents Roquette runs operations - i.e. offices and production plants – in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

Europe and the Group’s first international expansion drive Roquette first stretched its industrial presence across Europe, where it now runs 15 operations (11 production sites in France, Italy, w Spain, Romania, England and Germany, and 4 offices in Germany, S Spain, Finland and Russia).

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Espoo

Moscou Corby

Lestrem Klötze Francfort

Beinheim Vic/ Vecquemont Aisne Cassano Spinola Barcelone

Calafat

Benifayo

The Lestrem site is home to its corporate headquarters, a production plant and the Group’s main R&D center (which employs d more than 250 researchers). Roquette is also developing an indusm trial park enabling its partner firms to enjoy the advantages of hat ving a nearby starch mill and convenient raw-material supplies. It v has h developed two industrial complexes: Sethness-Roquette in Merville and Roquette Beinheim Bioéthanol (RBB) in Beinheim. v In total, Roquette counts 6 production plants in France: A corn and wheat starch mill in Lestrem (Nord-Pas de Calais), a corn and wheat w starch mill in Beinheim (Bas-Rhin), an ethanol plant in Beinheim (via s a partnership with the agricultural business), a potato starch mill in Vecquemont (Somme), a pea starch mill in Vic-sur-Aisne (Aisne) and a

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presence presence

Contents Europe and the Group’s first expansion drive Conquering new markets in the Americas and Asia

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caramel-color plant (a Sethness-Roquette joint venture) in Merville (Nord).

Roquette operates 3 maize starch mills elsewhere in Europe: one in Benifayo (near Valencia, Spain), one in Cassano (between Genoa and Milan, Italy), and one in Calafat (skirting the Danube, in Romania), and a wheat starch mill in Corby (northwest of London, England). It recently bought BPS, a microalgae production specialist boasting the world’s largest freshwater photobioreactor (in Klötze, east of Hanover, Germany).

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Roquette made another move to cement its presence in China in 2008: it acquired GNCP (Guangxi Nanning Chemical Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd), a polyol workshop in Nanning (in the province of Guangxi, southern China). It moved into India in 2006, acquiring a stake in a starch mill, and cemented its presence there by opening an office in Mumbai in 2007, that country’s economic capital. Roquette’s worldwide presence puts it in a position to deliver consistently unsurpassed quality standards to every one of its customers, wherever they are.

Conquering new markets in the Americas and Asia The drive across Europe stretched on to the US in the 1980s and on to Asia – where demand for starch products is high – more recently.

Roquette runs two production plants in the US: a sorbitol plant in Gurnee, Illinois (since 1982) and a corn starch mill in Keokuk, Iowa (since 1991). It has been pushing ahead with its efforts to export its expertise a by b opening an office in Mexico in 2008.

Gurnee Keokuk

Mexico

Beijing Seoul Tokyo Lianyungang

Ulsan

It has established a solid presence in Asia in less than a decade. It bought two A sorbitol production units – one in LianYuns Gang, (north of Shanghai, China) and one in G Ulsan Uls (Korea) – in 2001. It opened 2 offices U in in Tokyo and Osaka, in 2002. It in Japan, J then tthe stepped up its development in China and built a new plant in LianYunGang to a manufacture polyols (2004) and modified man starches (2006). star

Interview

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We have been working with Roquette for nearly 20 years now. A number of reasons prompted us to choose Roquette. First, it is the leader on its market. Second, its production plants are more or less near ours. Third and last, because of the quality of its products, the logistical services and the technical support it provides. We just know Roquette is always there when we need it.

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Mourtaza Adamjee, Global Purchaser, Danone Baby Alimentation Humaine (Netherlands)

Osaka

Shanghai Guangzhou Nanning

Mumbai

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theGroup’s Group’sroots roots Lestrem, Lestrem, the

The Group’s first operation in Lestrem concentrates the full breadth of expertise, which range from corporate services to production to pilot projects and on to industrial applications. This is where it conceives, engineers and develops most of its product ranges – making it Roquette’s main hub.

The Group’s main production plant The Lestrem production site runs four main production lines: • Corn starch (native and modified) • Wheat starch (native and modified) • Cereal sugars (liquid and dry) • Polyols.

This plant stands astride three communes (Merville, La Gorgue and Lestrem) and two departments (Nord and Pas de Calais). It stretches 2 km from east to west and 1.4 km from north to south, and spans 150 hectares. And it is in an enviable location to develop business in Northern Europe.

Contents The Group’s main production plant An unrivalled position Powerful regional impact

An unrivalled position This plant is a stone’s throw from large cereal-growing areas and Northern Europe’s main consumption areas, and not far from an extensive highway network, several river and sea ports, a choice of multimodal transport platforms, and railway lines. Poor access to those networks, however, is hampering this plant’s development.

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and headquarters and headquarters

Europe’s main starch Factory

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Powerful regional impact Roquette is the Nord-Pas de Calais area’s main exporter and ranks this area at the top of the list of foodstuff exporters. It also has a sizeable impact on jobs: the Lestrem plant alone directly employs 3,000 people, and accounts for many more jobs among its approximately 1,000 providers. Lestrem sources the bulk of its cereal in France (and about 60% of it comes from Northern France alone).

Europe’s main starch Factory The approximately 7,000 tons of cereals it processes per day rank Lestrem as Europe’s leading starch mill.

On average, roughly 100 trucks and up to 5 full trains leave this plant packed with our raw materials every day. The warehouse can store 80,000 tons of products, i.e. 16 days’ worth of production.

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The plant uses water from the River Lys. It processes 1,500 cubic meters per hour to make it fit for consumption and production, after pumping it from the river into a 10- hectare manmade lake. This lake also provides a natural form of water treatment before further treatment en route to the workshops manufacturing food and pharmaceutical products. Workshop wastewater then goes to our integrated treatment plant, which can process the equivalent of a 600,000-inhabitant city’s water requirements, and is then released back into the river. The plant uses cogeneration technology (combined electricity and steam production using natural gas), which covers 90% of its electricity and 100% of its steam requirements.

Note transport is nevertheless a key aspect of a company’s competitive edge and the French Grenelle de l’Environnement environmental summit ranked it as one of its concerns. The SeineNord Europe wide canal due to open in 2015 will only bring relief if a link is established between the plant and the wide river network.

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Longstanding partnerships with clients Roquette is always aiming for a higher standard of excellence and a sharper creative edge. It enables its clients to harness its sharp innovative talent, first-class technical support and powerful, constantly-upgraded industrial capacity. It strives to deliver dependable service, expertise and innovation, anticipate technological and marketing requirements, and provide outstanding service quality at competitive prices. Roquette professionals work side by side with their clients.

They understand their production processes and requirements, and pool efforts in application labs to hone products that meet each one’s specific needs.

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Expertise, Pushing product Expertise, pushing product Un savoir-faire, concevoir des efficiencylevels levelshigher higher efficiency

Interview

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We work with Roquette for several reasons. First of all, they are good. So they are going to be in business for a long time. They rank among the top three European and international companies that manufacture the products we need. Second, their structure and organization pretty much mirrors ours (we are both European companies, etc.). Third, we make our suppliers compete and Roquette knows how to get an edge on other bidders with the value for money it can deliver. Fourth, Roquette has real expertise and pays a lot of attention to R&D. It is really efficient and its delivery services are 100% reliable.

Roquette’s expertise, in a nutshell, lies in its ability to turn renewable agricultural raw materials into ever more innovative products for industry. One of its strengths is its ability to identify new production sources: it started with potatoes, moved on to corn, wheat and peas, and will be moving on to microalgae in the near future. The choice of raw materials it can tap, combined with its trailblazing production processes, in other words, put Roquette in an ideal position to develop products that meet the market’s needs.

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Thierry Ortscheid, Category Manager, Natural Ingredients, Bakemark Group.

Starch’s limitless properties

Contents Starch’s limitless properties One molecule, many applications

Starch is an amazing energy stockpile made of glucose molecules. It is sold untreated or as chemically or physically modified derivatives.

It can also be fractioned and sold as glucose, dextrose or maltodextrin syrups.

Glucose can be used as a raw material for fermentation products and other organic acids, or for hydrogenation products such as sorbitol or other polyols.

Starches and their derivatives are brimming with properties and naturally blend into human and animal food, paper, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and biochemical products.

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Longstanding partnerships with clients

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One molecule, many applications Starch and its more than 650 derivatives are everywhere: in soup (modified starch), cheese (glucono deltalactone), jam and ice cream (glucose syrup).

p r o d u c t

Interview

“ We source LYCADEX (glucose) at Roquette and use it in our European ®

production plants to make bags and mainly nourishing IV drips. We also source Icodextrin, which we use to make bags for peritoneal dialysis […]

They are used to build homes: Roquette products are used to make concrete additives, treat metal and bond walls. They also enhance a number of cosmetics including toothpastes and beauty creams.

Roquette’s main strength is in the fact that it can develop products with and for its clients. Roquette cares about its clients and about building lasting, long-term relationships with them.

They also make paper stronger and books easier to read. And our new biopolymers both soften and strengthen paper tissues. Starch also improves packaging (corrugated cardboard and heavy-duty paper bags). It is also good for health: maltodextrins help young children digest and other components prove beneficial for people with diabetes.

They also weave their way into medicine cupboards in the form of excipients used to make cough syrups and pills.

Baxter develops products to improve living conditions for patients with specific pathologies (hemophilia, immunodeficiency, cancer, renal failure, etc.).

The sheer breadth of our product range mirrors the variety and advanced technical expertise that our client firms span.

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renaud MAZy, Baxter Lessines Plant Director (Belgium)

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Quality standards that set the pace Roquette’s determination to earn client loyalty has led it to place customer satisfaction, quality and product safety at the center of everything it does. It has packed quality into its production process (using renewable raw materials and providing end-to-end tracking, aligning production to stringent treatment, purity and environmental standards, and delivering flawless ingredient quality).

This quality drive also entails securing supplies and guaranteeing service standards in every country Roquette serves. It likewise involves certification and checks every step of the way, from harvests and procurement through production and on to finishedproduct delivery.

Interview

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I would say that Roquette is first and foremost a driving force behind quality.

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As we see it, Roquette is a company you can trust. Quality is their operation’s linchpin, their service is outstanding and their organization is remarkable. Communication between their sales teams, technicians and R&D staff is amazingly smooth and swift.

Roquette is blazing new trails on the R&D and on the product-quality front. It makes sure the products it delivers are absolutely flawless.

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Alfred schlosser, European Purchasing Manager, Nestlé Purina Petcare (Germany)

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combustion there will generate threequarters of thermal energy that this plant consumes from clean and renewable resources.

mistry in France and across Europe. Roquette has been chairing this association since April 2008.

Roquette’s production plant in Lestrem (Nord-Pas de Calais, France) is currently Europe’s largest biorefinery: 7,000 tons of cereal a day are processed and more than 650 different products are marketed.

Pushing ahead with geographical development

Partnerships with public and private-sector research projects Roquette’s R&D drive explains the fact that it is contributing to running six competitiveness clusters, namely “Nutrition, Health and Longevity” (chaired by Marc Roquette), Halieutique (sea products), MAUD, Plastipolis, Axelera, IAR (Industries and Agro Resources) and Sporaltec (sports and leisure industry).

Roquette also actively supports the DigestScience Foundation (France’s first public interest institution conducting research on digestive diseases and nutrition), and EPODE, a program aiming to prevent child obesity that Fleurbaix and Laventie (two communes in Pas de Calais, France) have been rolling out since January 2004.

Roquette, last but not least, is a founding member of the Association Chimie Du Végétal (Vegetable Chemistry Association – ACDV), which channels efforts on the part of France’s leading chemical and agricultural firms to promote plant che-

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sustainable innovation sustainable innovation

Roquette is concurrently planning to step up its development in fast-growing zones. Emerging countries, where average starch-product consumption per capita is 5 to 20 times lower than in Western Europe, are where the big challenges of tomorrow await. The goal, at this point, is to bolster the Group’s presence in Asia, Central America (Mexico, in particular), and Russia. The Group is planning to do so by using the model that underpinned its success in Europe. It branches into a new country with a sales office, then builds and starts operating a polyol workshop.

It ultimately aims to integrate the entire production process – from raw-material sourcing to finished-product delivery – in each country. The teams that open up workshops abroad have more often than not sharpened their skills in France.

Roquette is the only starch mill that can boast 70 research engineers and technicians that master the industry’s cuttingedge technology and thereby enable it to design groundbreaking industrial projects the world over. Roquette also cements its presence abroad via partnerships with established companies. Sethness-Roquette, a plant manufacturing color caramel next to its Lestrem site, is one example.

Roquette has rooted its development in an industrial strategy carved out for the long run, ongoing determination to blaze new trails, and environmental stewardship since the very beginning. Its determination to retain its independence while cementing its leadership explains its recent moves to innovate and diversify by identifying two new strategic development goals: plant chemistry and nutrition-health. Alongside geographic expansion, these two options are brimming with growth opportunities for Roquette. We are developing them through controlled investment and matching our resources to our ambitious goals by handpicking the projects we work on and the companies we partner with.

Cementing leadership The Group has established a presence in the three main consumption areas – Europe, North and South America, and Asia – where application research centers are striving to meet local consumer requirements. Roquette has a clear goal: it aims to harness its acquired expertise and focus on its clients’ requirements to develop tomorrow’s products today.

Contents Cementing leadership Innovation that lasts, plant-chemistry nutrition-health

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Innovation that lasts Roquette’s sustainable-innovation strategy, in a nutshell, involves engineering and developing ingredients, products and applications that concurrently address ecological, economic and social challenges.

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Pushing ahead with geographical development

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A plant-chemistry pioneer Roquette is intent on raising the public’s awareness of the need to develop biobased products as a sustainable alternative to non-renewable fossil-fuel derivatives. It has embraced the US Department of Energy’s drive to replace 25% of the chemical industry’s fossil-derived raw materials with plant-derived alternatives by 2030.

This notion of plant chemistry blends seamlessly into the green-chemistry agenda that aims to cut back or indeed eliminate substances that harm human beings and the environment.

That explains the Group’s move to develop research and innovation programs around two goals: - Developing new and primarily biotechnology-derived molecules, with its BioHub® program - Developing new polymers with the GAÏAHUB® program The new BioHub® products are active and intermediate synthetic ingredients (biomonomers, biosolvents, bioplasticizers, biosequestering agents, etc.). Roquette is running the BioHub® program through a partnership with several industrial firms including a number of chemical companies such as Arkema (France), DSM (Netherlands), Cognis (Germany) and Solvay (Belgium), road builder Eurovia (Vinci Group), plasticbottle blowmolding specialist Sidel, PET manufacturer Tergal Industries, and Metabolic Explorer, a start-up in Clermont-Ferrand (France) that has specialized in bridging the gap between biotechnological breakthroughs to industrial applications. CNRS, a French research insti-

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tute, is making a sizeable contribution to the BioHub® program via its teams at the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (National Applied Science Institute – INSA) in Lyons and Rouen, and the Institut des Molécules et de la Matière Condensée de Lille (Lille Molecule and Condensed Matter Institute – IMMCL).

Over the past two years, the BioHub® program has already spawned demonstration industrial plants manufacturing isosorbide and its derivatives. The alliance with DSM, a Dutch company, was officially announced in early 2008. Their common goal is to develop a new biotechnological process to manufacture succinic acid, a biodegradable-polymer intermediate product that can be used in agricultural films, for instance.

A plant producing several hundred tons of succinic acid a year will be operational by the end of 2009.

The *GAÏAHUB® program is developing a new form of functionalization chemistry for plant-derived natural polymers such as starches and proteins. GAÏAHUB® is an answer to new demands for biosourced plastics in particular, and to replace oil-derived polymers in general (in adhesives, paint, ink and varnish, building materials, water treatment, etc.). Functionalizing plant-derived polymers is a way of fine-tuning trailblazing properties while cutting dependence on petroleum. The GAÏAHUB® program currently encompasses 23 partner business firms and research centers (all of which are world leaders in their fields). Several studies have already earned competitiveness-cluster certification from Axelera, Plastipolis, Mov’eo and Maud. The functionalized natural polymer products that have already secured patents (eight to date)

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are manufactured in batches amounting to a few tons each, and a few trademarks – including GAÏALENE™, GAÏAFINE™ and GAÏAPOL™ - have been chosen for the premarketing phase. * This program was named GaïaHub® after Gaïa, the goddess of the nourishing earth in Greek mythology.

Playing a part in the nutrition-health market Roquette is also getting more involved in health and nutrition, and currently run-

ning two particularly promising programs.

NutraHub®, the health and nutrition program, will lead to new functional ingredients on the food and pharmaceutical markets. This program concurrently aims to prevent the risk of chronic diseases and cater for specific diet requirements (pregnant women, children, vegetarians and elderly people). It addresses inadequate eating habits (overeating and undereating) to prevent the risks of obesity, diabetes, etc, and to compensate deficient diets (with minerals and vitamins, covering allergyspecific requirements, vegetarian diets, etc.). It also applies to health issues associated with an individual’s development and aging.

This program is focusing on three options: microalgae, peas and cereals.

Recent and ongoing clinical studies involving existing cereal products have zoomed in on weight management, digestion in general, prolonging energy release in particular and, simply put, on cutting sugar content and increasing fiber content. The new products in this line will also be undergoing in-depth studies.

The leguminous line is also exciting: peas are packed with high-biological-value protein, and environmentally-friendly (ex-

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traction processes do not require solvents).

This program aims to use all the products and co-products in the industrial process (starch, proteins and fiber).

Microalgae, last but not least, are tantamount to micro-plants or super-vegetables without leaves or roots, and are brimming with antioxidants, “good” lipids (of the Omega-3 variety) and proteins (considerably more than vegetables that grow in soil). They break new health-and-nutrition ground.

AlgoHub®, the multidisciplinary program involving these microalgae, is sponsored by OSEO Innovation. Roquette and its partner firms are planning to study biodiversity, develop microalgae bioreactors, and produce micronutrients and highadded-value ingredients. That is why the Group recently acquired BPS, the German microalgae production specialist that owns the world’s largest freshwater photobioreactor.

Blazing the biorefining trail The Group is also working on the integrated-biorefinery concept, which involves clustering industrial plants transforming agricultural raw materials (cereals, potatoes and peas) into products for the food, chemical, paper and pharmaceutical industry using renewable sources of energy (water, straw, wood, heat, etc.). Much like petrochemical refineries, biorefineries “crack” agricultural raw materials to extract each component and turn it into food fit for human consumption, food fit for animal consumption and other products.

Roquette is studying and applying solutions that use renewable sources of energy instead of fossil fuels in order to substantially cut greenhouse-gas emissions.

Our production plant in Beinheim (Bas-Rhin, France), is exploring a few very promising options on this front: deep geothermics, wood combustion and biogas

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Є40 million a year for research Roquette has brought together its research operation in Lestrem, the Group’s research base since 1951. The fact that the laboratories and main production are practically next door to each other boosts efforts to develop new techniques and products.

Our 300 researchers and technicians (including 250 based in Lestrem) and our two application labs in the US and China (to cater for local client demands) file about 20 patents a year. Research programs span biochemistry, microbiology and analytical control, as well as new technology and application development. Roquette signs more than 100 research-partnership agreements a year and has built close cooperation ties with universities and laboratories around the world.

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A fundamental priority A fundamental priority

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Roquette is a real partner and a key supplier. Its essential R&D skills also help us develop. Roquette is a proactive company and, in our view, has the most reliable delivery service.

Roquette’s main strength is in the fact that it can develop products with and for its clients. Roquette cares about its clients and about building lasting, long-term relationships with them.

Innovation and research are intertwined with this company’s DNA. Roquette has been exploring previously uncharted waters – developing new products and applications, and addressing budding market needs – since its inception. It has the human and technological resources it needs to aim high – and to rank among this industry’s most innovative firms.

”

Renaud Mazy, Baxter Plant Director (Belgium)

The innovation instinct Roquette started innovating in 1946, when it built Lestrem’s first corn starch mill to sharpen its competitive edge. Doing so enabled it to sell the broadest range of potato and corn-based starch products in France.

It built its first research lab in 1951, and added a pilot workshop shortly thereafter. New products – dextrose and sorbitol, in particular – followed. It simultaneously bolstered its sales force, and its sales engineers started venturing out into the export market (to Germany and Italy, two markets worth conquering).

Contents The innovation instinct Five recent milestones

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Five recent milestones Advances on the sugar-free front with SWEETPEARL™ maltitol SWEETPEARL™ is a low-calorie, non-cariogenic sugar substitute. SWEETPEARL™ beats saccharose in most traditional applications without altering recipes or processes. Its main uses encompass sugar-free chewing gum and sugar-free coated confectionery (it replicates sugar’s crispiness and stability), chocolate, cakes and biscuits with no added sugar.

It has opened up an unexpected choice of new recipes as it unleashes vibrant aromas while affording nutritional benefits.

SWEETPEARL™ is also used as a pharmaceutical excipient, and is especially suitable for powdered medicine (powder sachets, syrup powders and capsules) and every type of pill (to chew, to suck, coated or fizzy).

Harnessing a new raw material: high-protein peas What Roquette does, in a nutshell, is take starch-rich agricultural raw materials such as wheat and corn grains, or potato tubers, to extract their main constituents (starch, proteins, solubles, germs and fibers). Its in-depth grasp of this grain “cracking” process naturally prompted it to take a closer look at high-protein yellow peas as a new raw material.

It extracts these new Nutralys® pea proteins in its plant in Vic-sur-Aisne (Picardy, France), a potato-starch workshop that it overhauled into a high-protein-pea starch mill and protein workshop in 2007.

Those proteins add up to a new range of ingredients used to enhance protein content in a number of food products for sportspeople (high-energy bars), and to bond and add texture to red-meat and

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fish-based products, and products for vegetarians. Pea proteins have a beautiful balance of essential amino acids, remarkably complement cereals, are easy to digest, and have functional properties (emulsifying, gelling, etc.).

Pea starch is in a class of its own in the starch world: its high amylose content affords it distinctive physical and chemical properties (bonding, water-retaining, filming, crisping, etc.). Combined with Roquette’s expertise, it can be used to manufacture heavy-duty glue for double-thickness corrugated cardboard, accelerate production, cut chemical content and reduce waste rates.

A new range of soluble edible fiber: NUTRIOSE® Roquette has developed a range of soluble dietary fiber to address today’s requirements: it is packed with fiber and low on calories, releases energy at a slow pace to enhance endurance, and increases satiety. These fibers are used in milk- and fruit-based drinks, drinking yoghurt, energy drinks and flavored waters. As well as being easy to digest, lengthening finished-product shelf life and affording functional flavor and texture benefits, NUTRIOSE® is amazingly easy to use. This breakthrough is a statement about Roquette’s determination to support the food industry’s expansion by engineering health ingredients that effectively address increasingly demanding consumers’ concerns.

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A new film-forming polymer: LYCOAT® This new polymer gives the confectionery industry an opportunity to provide all-new and attractive starch-based coatings, and the pharmaceutical industry an opportunity to simplify and accelerate pill coating. It also opens the door to a new medication category: films that dissolve on the tongue for instant effect. Starch is a natural polymer that paves the way for a plethora of applications when it is processed to improve its properties. LYCOAT® (a patented product) mirrors Roquette’s ability to use pea starch to develop new chemical and physical treatments to hone an outstanding filmforming polymer.

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Lastly, Roquette has applied for EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) clearance to use isosorbide as a monomer for PET in contact with food.

Isosorbide has also earned *”green diol” certification for food packaging – a fast-growing sector keen on agricultural raw materials. *2 alcohol functions

This product is one of the linchpins in the BioHub ® program that kicked off in 2006, sponsored by OSEO Innovation. In 2007, after several years producing it in pilot workshops – which gradually grew in size - Roquette opened its first industrial demonstrator in Lestrem, using patented technology.

Isosorbide production for sustainable chemistry Isosorbide has been at the core of Roquette’s innovation strategy and production capacity for years now (Roquette is the world’s leading sorbitol manufacturer).

Isosorbide is made from sorbitol, which is in turn made from cereals. It is used as a raw material for new polymers, solvents and plasticizers. Isosorbidederived plasticizers can replace phthalate-based PVC plasticizers that, some people suspect, might harm health.

It also considerably enhances PET’s and other polymers’ resistance to heat, opening up new options (hot- fill containers, for instance).

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Key figures Key facts facts &&figures Appendice 1

The Roquette Group - A choice of more than 650products

- 2007 Group sales: more than €2.5 billion. Breakdown:

14%

6%

7%

20%

- Volume breakdown by application category:

14% in France 53% in the rest of the EU 20% in North America 7% in Asia 6% in other countries

9% 12% 50%

- The world’s n°1 manufacturer of polyols (sorbitol, mannitol, maltitol, etc.)

53%

14%

15%

- Europe’s n°2 and the world’s n°4 in its business sector (the starch mill)

50% Human food 15% Animal food 14% Paper and corrugated board 12% Pharmaceuticals and cosmetics 9% Chemicals and bioindustry

- The world’s n°1 in the range of raw materials for injectable substances (dextrose essentially) - A presence in more than 100 countries worldwide 30 operations: 15 in Europe, 3 in the Americas (2 in the USA, 1 in Mexico), 10 in Asia and 2 in India (offices and production plants)

- Totaling more than 6 million tons of products a year - More than 10% of revenue reinvested in industrial capacity and R&D every year

Industrial capacity 18 production plants :

2

1 1 6 1 11 1 1 1

11 in Europe: 6 in France, 1 in Spain, 1 in Romania,

1

1

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1 in Italy, 1 in England, 1 in Germany

2 in the US 3 in China 1 in Korea 1 in India

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Annual production

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- More than 6 million tons of agricultural raw materials (the equivalent of 750,000 hectares of planted land), by all our production plants combined: 1000

3200 1620

Corn: 3,200,000 tons, i.e. 10,000 tons a day Wheat: 1,620,000 tons, i.e. 5,000 tons a day Starch potatoes: 1,000,000 tons High-protein peas: 80,000 tons

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Research A €40 million annual budget Approx. 250 researchers in our Lestrem R&D Center 2 application laboratories (in China and the US) to provide closer customer service

People More than 6,000 employees worldwide:

- We process 3.5 million tons of agricultural raw materials a year in France (corn, wheat, potatoes and peas).

Europe

US Asie

- We process 15,000 tons a day in our plant in Lestrem (7,000 tons of cereals, 7000 tons of finished products leave the plant).

France

Lestrem - The world’s biggest wheat and wheat starch mill, and Europe’s biggest corn starch mill - 150 hectares in total, 100 hectares of buildings, parking areas and roads - 2.0 km east to west, 1.4 km north to south - In 3 communes (Lestrem, La Gorgue and Merville) and 2 departments (Nord and Pas de Calais) - Up to 5 trains and 100 trucks routing raw materials every day - On average 600 trucks a day routing finished products - 1,500 cubic meters of river water (from the Lys) processed every hour

4 700 in Europe 3600 in France, (3000 in Lestrem 250 in Beinheim, 250 in Vecquemont 100 in Vic-sur-Aisne) 1 000 in Asia 550 in the US

Total staff count has grown 33% in 10 years, from 4,500 in 1998.

We invest 3.5% of our payroll in training.

In 2007 and 2008, we hired an average of 100 people a year in Europe (half of whom were managers and engineers).

- Cogeneration (combined electricity and steam production) covers 90% of energy requirements - Storage capacity for 80,000 tons, i.e. 16 days’ worth of production - A water-treatment plant that could cater to a 600,000-inhabitant city, processing 45 tones of COD, and routing biomass back to fields

62080 Lestrem Cedex France ® Marques déposées et enregistrées par la société Roquette Frères - © Roquette Frères S.A. - 12/2008

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Milestones MilestonesLes

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dates Appendice 2

The beginning

Streching across Europe

1912

Dominique Roquette started working for a grain broker in Lille, went on to become an associate

1958

Acquired a stake in a corn starch mill in Benifayo, Spain

1919

Germain joined his brother’s brokerage (Dominique had become the head of the company)

1961

Roquette Italia creation and construction of a corn starch mill

1924

The Roquette brothers partnered to establish SODACO – D. et G. Roquette and transferred their offices to the new Chamber of Commerce building in Lille, where the grain exchange was held every Wednesday

1962

Joint-ventured with National Starch, an American company. Worked with it until 1984, when it had to discontinue joint operations due to European Community regulations

1933

1976 1977

Opened an office in Frankfurt, Germany

They decided to set up a starch mill and call it Roquette Freres – Les Grandes Feculeries du Nord, on a vast plot of land that they had bought in Lestrem, 35 km from Lille

1934

Roquette started building its first plant, in Lestrem. It sold some of its starch to textile companies and the rest to food manufacturers

1985

Moved into England buying a caramel plant in Corby

1986

Built a wheat starch mill in Lestrem, France

1989

Bought a potato starch mill in Vic-sur-Aisne, France

1993 1997

Launched maltitol production in Lestrem

1998

Built a wheat starch mill in Beinheim, France

2000

Bought a wheat starch mill in Corby, England

2004

Opened an office in Espoo, Finland, and a color caramel plant with Sethness in Merville, France

2005

Pea starch and protein production began in Vic-sur-Aisne, France

Expansion across France, product diversification 1935

Diversification began: the company started making glucose from potato starch

1936

Dextrine production, for glue manufacturers and foundries, began

1946

Built a corn starch mill in Lestrem, to produce glucose at more competitive costs

1951

Opened the first research lab, which led to dextrose and sorbitol production

1954 1956

Industrial sorbitol production Roquette Frères acquired a wheat starch mill in Cambrai, adding the third source of starch raw material to its line, and built a potato starch factory in Vecquemont, in the Somme

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Built a new corn starch mill in Beinheim, north of Strasbourg, to cater to Germany and Central Europe. Built a wheat starch production unit in Vecquemont, France

Branched into Romania, buying a corn starch mill in Calafat

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Started working on plant-chemistry programs (BioHub and GaïaHub) and on health and nutrition

2007 2008

OSEO financed BioHub ®

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Beinheim ethanol plant (RBB) came online, sales office opened in Moscow, Russia

International expansion Americas :

1982

Roquette built a plant near Chicago, in Gurnee (Illinois), to bolster its sales presence in the US

1991

Acquired a corn starch mill in Keokuk (Iowa)

2008

Opened an office in Mexico (Mexico City)

Asia :

2001

Development in China and Korea with the acquisition of two sorbitol production units in Lianyungang and Ulsan

2002

Opened a sales offices in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan

2004

Built a polyol and modified-starch plant in LianYunGang, China

2006

Bought a stake in a starch mill in India and a modified starch plant in China.

2007 2008

Opened an office in Mumbai, India Established GNPC, a new Roquette China subsidiary (in Nanning, southern China)

62080 Lestrem Cedex France ® Marques déposées et enregistrées par la société Roquette Frères - © Roquette Frères S.A. - 12/2008

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and the environment and the environment

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Appendice 3

This company’s strategy is based on environmentallyfriendly and neighborfriendly research and industrial growth. What it does – process renewable raw materials, and conduct research on plant chemistry – quite naturally leads it to rank environmental concerns high on its corporate agenda.

Its products are naturally biodegradable and harmless to the environment. From a sustainable-development perspective, Roquette is committed to protecting the environment throughout its production process and advises its clients on how to broach the issue in their operations.

1 A bold environmental policy The Group’s environmental policy spans its entire production process. It encompasses general goals that apply at plant and workshop level, and which entail regular audits. Its efforts involve optimizing water and energy consumption in order to increase production by limiting the use of resources.

Every one of its European operations meets the European Standard on the Integrated Pollution and Control (IPPC) on industrial risks and and Best Available Practices.

Optimizing the use of water In order to limit water consumption, Roquette has decided to use river water for its cooling circuits and to produce the drinking water it needs in its plants. It then processes the water in its on-site treatment unit and feeds it back into the river. Lestrem, for instance, has grown threefold while halving the water it pumps from the river, thanks to 25 times more recycling operations.

Contents 1 A bold environmental policy 2 Helping customers protect the environment

On-site water-treatment plants have considerably cut back the effluents in plant water. The plant in Lestrem has seen its pollution levels (in terms of oxygen demand) divided by 50 while its production multiplied by 4 (since 1973).

Preserving air quality Plant locations – in rural areas and served by roads, river and waterways – enables them to optimize raw-material and finished-product logistics, and to limit CO2 emissions.

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The first thing Roquette does to limit emissions is optimize its energy consumption. It is developing the use of natural gas (which contains negligible amounts of sulfur), as well as electricity and steam cogeneration from natural gas (which contributes to cutting the greenhouse effect). It is reviewing projects involving geothermal energy and biomass (word for combustion). It subjects the powdery products it uses to extremely efficient filtering systems.

Smells To reduce unpleasant odors and thereby improve neighbor comfort, we reroute graindryer smoke back into the combustion cycle.

Noise We start looking at noise control as soon as we start engineering new facilities, and use a state-of-the-art software application to forecast and contain noise in and around our plants.

Waste The processes we use at Roquette do not generate much waste. Most of our plants have partnerships with farming operations to recycle byproducts containing organic fertilizers. Conventional waste (paper, wood, cardboard, etc.) is reclaimed after on-site screening.

Industrial risks Safety and security are an integral part of our strategy at Roquette, and we strive to reduce industrial risks with prevention.

Prevention, here, mainly involves: - forestalling accidental pollution - forestalling fire and explosion risks We train our staff, streamline our organization, invest in suitable technology and respect regulations to do so.

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2 Helping customers protect the environment Roquette helps its customers protect the environment. A few examples will provide a general impression of our contribution on this front.

Paper industry: Roquette cationic starch serves as a retention and draining agent that contributes to protecting the environment.

Hydrocarbon soil pollution: potato solubles provide a food supplement that the microorganisms that biodegrade hydrocarbons need to grow.

These solubles produced by Roquette contribute to soil bioremediation and regenerate contaminated land thanks to the nitrogen and mineral elements they contain.

Agents used in the cleaning and surface-treatment industry are scarcely biodegradable. For those operations, Roquette recommends sodium gluconate, a starchbased fermentation product, which is both highly efficient and easy to degrade biologically.

Mushrooming amounts of packaging are generating more and more waste, which is often difficult to recycle or reclaim. Roquette worked with its clients to develop a sustainable solution for food packaging: starch for tray production. This technology replaces polystyrene (which is made from petroleum) and provides a sustainable recycling option such as composting.

62080 Lestrem Cedex France ® Marques déposées et enregistrées par la société Roquette Frères - © Roquette Frères S.A. - 12/2008

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