Sales and marketing strategy Puleva Biotech responds to specific needs by developing tailored solutions
In an economic environment such as that unfolding, where price becomes one of the decisive drivers of the purchasing decision, Puleva Biotech affords its customers – food companies, pharmaceutical companies, etc. – the chance to create unique, highly sought after value added products. User-friendly, differentiated products that improve consumers’ quality of life.
In this context, innovation and research become essential competitive weapons for companies seeking to differentiate themselves from their competitors and to progress beyond the traditional business model, today dominated by private label brands and low cost propositions.
Growth drivers
Puleva Biotech has the advantage of being able to offer tailored solutions
Puleva Biotech possesses a distinct and unique value proposition which endows it with a sustainable competitive advantage: the development of applied products, namely the scope to provide tailored solutions, conceived of and implemented in response to each customer’s specific needs, based on extensive expertise in scientific research, put to the service of the search for highly innovative consumer oriented solutions.
Indeed, Puleva Biotech’s new sales and marketing strategy is predicated on an unwavering focus on the end consumer. To do so, it will tap its three essential levers: (i) leadership in R&D, (ii) multi-functional teams poised and ready to interpret emerging needs and come up with the right solutions, and (iii) a strong position in all the important Western markets.
In short, Puleva Biotech stands out from all its competitors offering companies global solutions: not only on products (where the portfolio is expanding and increasingly innovative), but also on ongoing R&D services, technical industry advice and getting the nutrition message to consumers. This means its customers are actually getting a ‘turnkey’ solution which enables them to market highly value added products without having to make any additional investment in either technology or know-how.
Strong international positioning
Puleva Biotech has reinforced its international presence in the past year
In the last year, Puleva Biotech managed to strengthen its international position thanks to significant strategic agreements in the US, Australia, Europe and Iran.
Some of this expansion is owed to the integration of Exxentia within the Group, which brought a significant presence in important European Union member states. However, it is also a clear reflection of (i) the development of new ingredients with health benefits which can be applied to new functional foods and (ii) the provision of R&D services to third parties.
A new sales & marketing structure
Puleva Biotech’s research prowess and its new value added product development need to reach the end consumer via health sector companies.
For years now, Puleva Biotech’s scientific researchers have been generating healthy bioactive strains with a high industrial component and significant commercial value. Today, Puleva Biotech is ready to undertake the communication and transfer of these value added products to consumers. To do so, the Company has put in place an ambitious sales network, levering the Ebro Puleva Group’s multinational structure, which will enable it to showcase to each and every one of its target audiences the technological advances it has made.
The capacity to innovate has a multiplier effect on product value, and by extension, on companies' values. The only path to multiplying our value lies with a sales structure capable of communicating the value of our scientific know-how, and the ability to develop and bring innovative products to the market.
This is why Puleva Biotech has doubled its sales and marketing effort, putting in place a powerful and dedicated team with the wherewithal to turn the sales function into a key growth driver.
Business lines
Puleva Biotech is engaged in three lines of business, each making a valuable contribution to healthier living: lipids, probiotics and plant extracts.
Lipids: Omega 3, worldwide leadership
Puleva Biotech is currently the world leader in sales of Omega 3, a business primarily focused on fomenting consumption of healthy fats. Functional foods and diet supplements containing Omega 3 improve consumers’ blood lipid levels, thereby reducing the risks of heart disease and obesity.
In both 2006 and 2007, Puleva Biotech significantly reinforced its position in the Omega 3 segment in Spain and abroad. In 2008, the sales and marketing strategy was overhauled, shifting away from a distributor based model towards a direct sales approach.
Puleva Biotech is the world leader in sales of Omega 3
This strategic change will become the product’s greatest strength from 2009.
Puleva Biotech participated at the Vitafoods international trade fair in May 2008, showcasing a new range of products containing a variety of Omega 3 oils which mark significant progress on product presentation and stability. This progress will enable the incorporation of these strains into new food groups and into several pharmaceutical and dietary applications.
These applications, which will be driven by the new sales structure, will enable very significant growth in demand for Omega 3. To meet forecast demand, work has been finalised on extending capacity at the Granada facility four-fold, bringing it to 2,000,000 kilos a year.
Breast milk probiotics
Probiotics are live microorganisms that, when taken in certain amounts, can provide health benefits for the organism.
These health benefits are apparent in multiple physiological activities: they boost immune defences, speed up intestinal transit, regulate the digestive system, slow the absorption of fats, reduce highly prevalent infections such as mastitis in breast-feeding mothers, etc.
In 2008, volumes in this business line doubled, a testament to the tremendous growth opportunities that had been identified for this market. Revenue surged 55% over 2007, driven, as anticipated, mainly by the marketing of a new strain of probiotics to customers producing infant milks, including third party producers and the Ebro Puleva Group.
Puleva Biotech continues to work on the development of new probiotic strains to extend its product range, and on new presentation formats, while simultaneously raising productivity and lowering production costs.
Plant extracts
Puleva Biotech is currently a pioneer in the extraction of active principles from plants, supplying major food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and diet supplement producers. The Company has an extensive product portfolio built from active principles which are perfectly documented and registered in accordance with the European Drug Master File procedure. These products are benchmarks in their respective areas of competence: heart disease, obesity, arthritic and muscular problems, cognitive development and nutricosmetics.
Exxenterol® provides a good example: this is an extract from a Mediterranean fruit used in traditional cooking which has been proven to reduce cholesterol. Exxenterol® has been applied to the development of prototypes for multiple foods with hypocholesterolaemic properties, such as milkshakes, pizzas, pastries and cereals, namely products that serve the dual function of sating appetite and absorbing fats.
In the nutricosmetics field, the Company is developing a line of herbal medicines designed to solve problems related to weight control, water retention, sleep deprivation, etc.
The broad spectrum of opportunities thrown up by the world of plant extracts has prompted Puleva Biotech to install a new plant in Peñafiel to produce bioactive ingredients derived from natural products, functional sugars and next generation fibres, designed to alleviate digestive, cardiovascular and glycaemia related conditions. The investment in the Peñafiel facility will result in the development of a group of healthy and highly nutritional fibres with a view to raising the quality of foods sold for human consumption and, by extension, to add to the nutritional component of new food products.
Other businesses
Puleva Biotech is proud to spearhead the PRONAOS public health scientific research project
Puleva Biotech continues to perform work for certain Ebro Puleva Group companies, specifically assisting them with the development of technology, products and processes and assessing the nutritional content of certain products for a number of businesses: dairy, rice and pasta.
Puleva Biotech has spent three years developing a far-reaching R&D effort designed to determine new scientific bases and techniques for establishing new or improved processes/products from rice and other cereals and pulses. This program, funded in part by the CTA (the Andalusian Technology Corporation) and the IDEA Agency, covers the development and industrial application of next generation processes and products via the incorporation of new technologies into cereal-based foods with a view to improving their nutritional content, texture, nutrient absorption, etc.
The value of the research effort. Project PRONAOS
In 2005 the Spanish Ministry for Health and Consumption, via the food safety and nutrition agency AESAN, put in motion the NAOS strategy (an acronym in Spanish for the Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity Prevention strategy), a program designed to address the factors contributing to surplus weight and obesity. This program follows WHO recommendations urging member nations to establish policies to tackle obesity.
In line with and in support of this strategy, the PRONAOS project was born. Under the umbrella of this project, Puleva Biotech, in conjunction with 15 private companies from the food sector and in collaboration with 39 public research bodies, will research the genetic, molecular and nutritional factors regulating body weight control systems with a view to developing foods targeted at tackling weight control and preventing obesity.
The PRONAOS project, led by Puleva Biotech, is the most ambitious food nutrition research initiative ever launched in Spain with the overriding goal of developing a new generation of functional foods capable of contributing to weight reduction and treating obesity. Over €27 million has been earmarked for this research initiative.
The PRONAOS project will give rise to obesity treatments for human consumption that will raise consumers’ quality of life and help them to control their weight.
