Puleva Biotech places the consumer at the heart of its biotechnology effort
Last year was transformational for Puleva Biotech. Following the acquisition of Exxentia, the hiring of Juan Carlos de Gregorio as chief executive and the extension of its product portfolio, the Company is now ideally placed to become a global benchmark in the food industry going forward.
Puleva Biotech started 2008 in the best possible shape for taking a qualitative strategic leap. As part of the Ebro Puleva Group, the Company already had an extensive scientific track record, underpinning its structure as an independent company within the Group in 2000 and its successful IPO the following year.
Global patents
Puleva Biotech is the benchmark in functional food research and development throughout Europe
Since its foundation, Puleva Biotech’s strategic innovation, research and development work stands out. Its significant discoveries have made important contributions to global progress in the field of food and nutrition. More specifically, Puleva Biotech has obtained over 10 global patents and has developed more than 20 functional foods, worked with over 50 Spanish and international universities and institutions and has published over 150 scientific papers in the world’s leading specialist journals. All this has made the Company a reference point in functional food research and development throughout Europe.
The research performed by an extensive and skilled team applied to the development of bioactive components has generated a pool of biotech know-how, with tremendous scope for industrial application, which translates into huge opportunities for the development of value added products which contribute to healthier living.
Hereditum®
In 2005, Puleva Biotech revolutionised the scientific community by demonstrating that human breast milk is a source of probiotic bacteria which play a key role in colonising newborns’ digestive tracts, constituting their first defensive barrier. And so Hereditum® was born, the firm’s patented selection of probiotic bacteria from human breast milk for potential incorporation into infant milks and foods, which play an important role in infants’ immune systems and other areas of the field of health.
Puleva Biotech showed the global scientific community that human milk contained endogenous live bacteria that are transferred from mother to infant, by demonstrating the existence of cells in breast-feeding mothers’ immune systems which selectively transport these bacteria to the mammary glands where they are in turn incorporated into the breast milk, and how, once transferred into the newborn via its sole food source, they colonise the infant’s digestive tract, generating intestinal flora, which will protect the infant down the line from other pathogenic bacteria.
This research constitutes a milestone in global nutrition as it marks the first time that a biotech company has come up with the bacteria of human origin responsible for our first defences, opening up the possibility that the immunity provided by human breast milk can be built into functional foods.
Eupoly Omega 3®
Exxentia has provided Puleva Biotech with the perfect ‘ingredient’ in its quest to become a serious contender in applied biotechnology
Another major Puleva Biotech milestone was the discovery of Eupoly Omega 3®, an oil rich in Omega 3 (EPA-DHA) fatty acids, recommended in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. However, the merit of this finding does not stop at the discovery itself: Puleva Biotech stands out for the application of its sophisticated scientific and technological know-how to the development of functional foods which incorporate this oil.
Today, Puleva Biotech is the world leader in sales of LC-Omega3, which it sells to food companies in 30 countries which apply it in their functional dairy products. And to be incorporated into many new foods in the near future.
Shift in paradigm
On top of these achievements, society has been changing radically, and these changes are having a direct and positive impact on people’s eating habits. Today’s consumer is better informed, increasingly sceptical and demanding, and is looking for nutrition that tallies with his growing interest in personal health and well-being.
Consumer behaviour is not immune to prevailing rapid social changes: greater life expectancy, growing world population, ever increasing numbers of women in the workforce and a high number of single person and single parent households. These consumers have a keen interest in incorporating dynamic, innovative, user-friendly valueadded products into their daily diets.
Against this backdrop, Puleva Biotech contributes to the research and innovation that is essential to today’s food companies seeking to inject their brand and product portfolios with revolutionary active ingredients within the healthy eating segment.
Incorporation of Exxentia
Exxentia has provided Puleva Biotech with the perfect ‘ingredient’ in its quest to become the leader in applied biotechnology. Devoted to the extraction of active principles from plants, Exxentia has a significant track record in developing and manufacturing an extensive catalogue of natural plant extracts which it distributes to the pharmaceutical, diet, food and cosmetics industries in over 20 countries.
The merger of Exxentia and Puleva Biotech is a perfect combination: one of the leading players on the European biotechnology research scene, with an extreme focus on providing consumers with next generation solutions to their nutritional, pharmacological and dietary needs.
Towards a more profitable model
Puleva Biotech is embarking on a new era armed with a winning strategy based on four cornerstones
The change in model has taken a toll on Puleva Biotech’s profits. Despite a 45% jump in revenue following the consolidation of Exxentia, loss before tax reached €347,000 compared to a profit of €3.7 million in 2007.
Two main factors underlie this shift: (i) Exxentia’s transformation on the manufacturing front and (ii) the increase in finance expense.
The launch of the new production facility in Talayuela (Caceres) has facilitated the transfer and centralisation of volumes from the Lillo factory (Toledo). This move entailed a temporary spike in production costs while manufacturing was ongoing at both facilities simultaneously. Now that this process has successfully culminated, the centralisation of volumes, combined with the higher efficiency and productivity of the new plant, will result in a reduction in production costs.
The financial results have been affected by a temporary downturn in financial investment due to resources being deployed to fund the acquisition of Exxentia and expanding the production capacity.
Both factors should prove circumstantial and underpin a significant improvement in profitability in 2009.
The new Puleva Biotech is embarking on a fresh era, despite the inevitable uncertainties posed by the unfolding economic crisis, with a winning strategy.
