Poised to meet evolving market needs

IN THE second quarter of the year, FrieslandCampina Ingredients announced changes in which its operating companies DOMO, Kievit, DMV, and Nutrifeed had been incorporated into strategic customer segments called Early Life Nutrition, Food & Beverages, Adult Nutrition, and Animal Nutrition. The transformation aims to bring out the company’s expertise in creating new and advanced solutions for healthier and tastier food under one brand, and to explore other areas in protein, gut health, and personalised nutrition.

FoodPacific Manufacturing Journal further asked Anne Peter Lindeboom, Managing Director Early Life Nutrition and Mark Stolzenbach, Managing Director Food & Beverages/Managing Director Animal Nutrition, on how these changes came about and what it means for customers and consumers.

What was behind FrieslandCampina Ingredients’ strategy of incorporating its specialist brands into the new global segment organisation?

Anne Peter Lindeboom: In recent years we have seen consumer demands changing. They demand more nutritious food with an excellent taste. Moreover, consumption patterns are changing, we see growing on-the-go consumption.

Our new organisation provides our customers with products and solutions that reflect these current market needs for nutritious and healthy food and the trend towards more out-of-home and on-the-go consumption. We also simplified our portfolio, so we can offer a clearly defined configuration of services and products. This enables us to create more focus and clarity on who we are for our customers and what we can mean for them.

In order to meet the changing market dynamics, we transformed our four OpCo’s to a more market-oriented set-up around four strategic segments: Adult Nutrition, Early Life Nutrition, Food & Beverages, and Animal Nutrition. 

Anne Peter Lindeboom, Managing Director, Early Life Nutrition 

From a corporate point of view, what was lacking from the old setup that will be addressed by the new one?

Mark Stolzenbach: Over the last couple of years we noticed that our customers and consumers demand an integrated offering around nutrition. For example, products that deliver on healthier indulgence are becoming increasingly important. Our new organisation and brand represent our shared ambition to find more ways to provide integrated value to our customers. More purposeful collaboration, more sharing of trends and insights, more immersive experiences with our ingredients, and intensified contribution to their success.

In addition, the recent changes allow us to tell a singular story about the power of our ingredients, and the role of our specialists in unlocking that power for a variety of industries and significantly improving the quality of life.

The new organisation will be able to better address changing market needs, will enhance solution and service offerings and will further leverage development capabilities to co-create and grow customer partnerships.

It is assumed there will be added customer benefits resulting from this change. What would these be for each of the segments?

Lindeboom: As all of our former operating companies had the same values, we saw huge potential in bringing them together under the same banner to put more focus on their shared commitment: the high-quality ingredients and collaboration.

Ultimately, we want to enable our customers to react faster to the changing market demands. To show our commitment, we now have dedicated segment marketing and we have increased our regional capabilities to better understand consumer needs. With this knowledge we can translate consumer needs to new FrieslandCampina Ingredients concepts and decrease our time-to-market.

Moreover, we have created more focus on who we are for our customers and we are improving customer experience, our online presence and our operational effectiveness in key segments.

Mark Stolzenbach, Managing Director, Food & Beverages/Managing Director Animal Nutrition

The silver market will be one of the biggest in Asia Pacific in the next decades. Are the needs of this market under both the F&B and Adult Nutrition segments?

Stolzenbach: Ageing adults are seeking convenient, tasty and nutritious solutions to stay healthier for longer. At the same time, balanced nutrition and physical activity are fundamental pillars for healthy living and healthy aging. For example, muscle preservation is pivotal for active aging and staying independent.

Products for these consumers must deliver on nutrition and protein enrichment, taste and convenience, so that people can incorporate them into their daily routines. By drawing on the group’s collective experience in performance and medical nutrition, the new FrieslandCampina Ingredients Adult Nutrition team aims to support the development, co-creation and concept development with customers of more nutritious, convenient and superior dairy and protein-based products that support the healthy and frail elderly throughout their adult lives. This dynamic new segment is ideally placed to develop targeted and innovative nutrition solutions that can support adults with different interests, lifestyles and health goals through various stages of life.

In conclusion, the needs of the silver market are under the Adult Nutrition segment. However, the new FrieslandCampina Ingredients segment organisation enables more synergy and collaboration across segments. The Food & Beverages segment is all about creating immersive and indulgent experiences through aspects that touch all senses like for example taste, mouthfeel and texture. Undeniably important factors in the foods industry as a whole, also for applications developed for the healthy and active ageing market.

There are many developments in infant nutrition as well. What are the expectations from the Early Life Nutrition segment?

Lindeboom: In Early Life Nutrition, parents and customers request uncompromised quality. We do not just sell a product, but we actually sell trust and translate this belief into our innovations. Next to the quality and quantity of macronutrients in infant nutrition, we investigate specific bioactive components that are expected to be beneficial for the baby.

To name a few examples: Our recent launch of Human Milk Oligosaccharide- Aequival^® 2’-FL*. Aequival^® 2’-FL is the first oligosaccharide with an identical structure to a human milk oligosaccharide to become available for application in Infant Formula.

Next to this, we recently launched another innovation at ESPGHAN conference in Glasgow, Scotland, i.e. Vivinal^® MFGM (Milk Fat Globule Membranes)**. Vivinal^® MFGM is an infant formula grade whey protein concentrate containing proteins and lipids. This product contributes to a significant improved fat composition as compared to currently available fat blends in infant formula.

Regarding geography, we see opportunities for growth with our key (global) customers. We will focus on Asia, and on China in specific. This is and remains our largest growth market for the coming years.

Will the Animal Nutrition segment consider the growing pet food market in Asia?

Stolzenbach: Our Animal Nutrition segment is focused on nutritional solutions for young animals (a.o. piglets and calves). Our new organisation is better equipped to capture opportunities in a broader Animal Nutrition market.

Notes:

*Additional information about Aequival^® 2’-FL:

2’-Fucosyllactose (2’-FL) is also the most abundant oligosaccharide (HMO) found in human milk ¹. Scientific research in recent years has unveiled a range of health benefits of 2’-FL of which the most pronounced are a reduction of bacterial and viral infections ^2,3, and stimulation of the growth of beneficial Bifidobacteria in the gut ⁴.

References

1. Chaturvedi, P. et al. Fucosylated human milk oligosaccharides vary between individuals and over the course of lactation. Glycobiology 11, 365–72 (2001).

2. Morrow, A. L. et al. Human milk oligosaccharides are associated with protection against diarrhea in breast-fed infants. J. Pediatr. 145, 297–303 (2004).

3. Weichert, S. et al. Bioengineered 2’-fucosyllactose and 3-fucosyllactose inhibit the adhesion of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and enteric pathogens to human intestinal and

respiratory cell lines. Nutr. Res. 33, 831–8 (2013).

4. Yu, Z.-T., Chen, C. & Newburg, D. S. Utilization of major fucosylated and sialylated human milk oligosaccharides by isolated human gut microbes. Glycobiology 23, 1281–92

(2013).

**Additional information about Vivinal^® MFGM:

There is increasing scientific evidence that several components of milk fat globule membranes (MFGM) may play a role in brain development ¹ and are involved in different biological processes ^2,3,4. Clinical studies in infants with components of MFGM have shown its potential for cognitive development like increased scores for Hand - Eye coordination, performance IQ and general IQ to comparable scores of breastfed infants and higher than control formula ^5,6.

References

1. Early Supplementation of Phospholipids and Gangliosides Affects Brain and Cognitive Development in Neonatal Piglets. Liu et al., 2014

2. Influence of dietary gangliosides on neonatal brain development. Ryan et al., 2013

3. Membrane lipids: where they are and how they behave. Van Meer et al., 2008

4. Effects of dietary sphingomyelin on central nervous system myelination in developing rats Oshida et al., 2003

5. Association of complex lipids containing gangliosides with cognitive development of 6-month-old infants. Gurnida et al.,2012

6. Neurodevelopment, nutrition, and growth until 12 mo of age in infants fed a lowenergy, low-protein formula supplemented with bovine milk fat globule membranes: a randomized controlled trial. Timby et al., 2014