In June, Azelis, a leading innovation service provider in the specialty chemicals and food ingredients industry with US$3 billion in revenue, announced the opening of its Regional Innovation Center (RIC) for Food & Nutrition (F&N) in Singapore.
The RIC will generate a wealth of possibilities for food innovation towards healthier and tastier solutions through pioneering, ready-to-use formulations with advanced, sustainable ingredients. Functioning as an innovation catalyst for the F&N ecosystem in Asia Pacific, the RIC is an essential milestone in Azelis’ growth strategy, strengthening the Group’s position as a leading provider of innovative solutions.
In addition to the RIC, Azelis’ 5 F&N application laboratories across Asia Pacific form a regional innovation network that brings together the technical expertise and formulation capabilities of the local and regional teams for greater synergy. This setup allows Azelis to serve the F&N market more efficiently, realise advanced ingredient synergies and develop ground-breaking formulations and sustainable solutions that will be cascaded across the region.
AFBR has the opportunity to interview Laurent Nataf, CEO and President Asia Pacific of Azelis to gain more insights on the RIC and its strategy for this region.
The following are excerpts from the interview:
What is Azelis’ growth strategy in the Food & Nutrition category within the Asia Pacific region?
Our Food & Nutrition (F&N) growth strategy in Asia Pacific concentrates on our overall vision of being a one-stop-shop for innovation for the food and beverage industry. To achieve this, we will continue to strengthen and expand our collaboration with our blue-chip principals, who are leading specialty ingredient suppliers, to ensure our lateral value chain (LVC) has the breadth and depth of products available to meet the requirements of our customers. Only by maintaining our strong growth performance with our principals, will we be able to expand our portfolio of products and build a comprehensive regional product portfolio. This allows us to deliver innovative solutions in line with the latest market trends, including health and wellness, sustainability, nature-oriented products, as well as diet-focused solutions.
We aim to leverage the capabilities of our new Regional Innovation Center (RIC) for F&N to further develop our business in Asia Pacific, ensuring we focus on innovative solutions that are market-leading and sustainable. Additionally, we will focus on growing our team across the region and deepening our ingredient expertise, to ensure our technical knowledge remains unparalleled. This will guarantee we continue to be the innovation solution provider of choice for our principals and customers, delivering innovative solutions that meet their requirements.
How unique is Azelis’ RIC in Singapore as compared to its other RICs worldwide?
Each RIC serves a dedicated market segment, on a regional scale. The Asia Pacific Food & Nutrition RIC is the very first at Azelis in the F&N market. The RIC orchestrates innovation within the region, and connects all the local F&N labs across Asia Pacific. Equipped with state-of-the-art lab equipment, the RIC is also able to support the region with advanced projects and trials. Thanks to the RIC, our technical expertise and innovation capabilities will be accessible to a larger audience within the food and beverage industry.
The ingredient portfolio we have built in Asia Pacific, where we partner with leading manufacturers of the global F&N industry, allows the RIC to develop unique and sustainable formulations with advanced ingredient synergies that will be cascaded across the region, leading to more innovation in the Asia Pacific food and beverage market.
What will you consider to be the advantages of Azelis’ RIC as compared to others built by other ingredient companies around the region?
One unique advantage is our formulation expertise combined with our comprehensive product portfolio, which allows us to provide innovative solutions to customers. The portfolio of ingredients we have curated is where we stand out, along with the extensive formulation library that is proprietary to Azelis. We take care to include sustainable ingredients within our portfolio, to ensure we have options to create sustainable formulations, in line with our sustainability goals and ambitions.
The RIC also makes innovation accessible both in person and digitally, leveraging Azelis’ Customer Portal, our digital platform that was developed after in-depth market analysis and customer interviews to understand their needs and expectations. The Customer Portal provides product information, formulation and trend inspiration, and all the essential information customers need to formulate a product with just a click. We also developed the e-Lab, a unique service offered by Azelis through the Customer Portal. The e-Lab is a collaborative platform that taps directly into the RIC’s innovation network and formulation expertise, allowing customers to create a new formulation, and improve or customise existing ones, 24/7. The RIC enhances the Customer Portal and e-Lab, allowing Azelis to deliver unique, innovative formulations and quality product descriptions, creating an innovation platform that is essential and critical to the growth of Azelis.
What will the RIC in Singapore focus on? Any specific segments that will be its primary focus in the region?
The RIC’s key focus is to find innovative solutions that will improve the manufacturing process, and also create sustainable and healthier food solutions. With around 500m2 of space dedicated to innovation, the RIC has dedicated spaces for various applications, including savory & meat, confectionery, beverage, dairy, bakery, as well as measuring and analysis rooms. The space has been designed to reflect the key markets that are of particular importance to the region, and each lab is operated by a technical specialist within that field, that focuses on developing innovative solutions.
We will also focus on developing solutions that meet current consumer and market needs. For instance, our RIC formulated a reduced sugar Thai milk tea that is also enriched in fiber, a vegan, egg-free version of a jam that traditionally contains eggs, and a vegan, zinc and fiber fortified instant soup mix. Our formulations also consider tomorrow’s needs and trends, with a strong focus on plant-based alternatives in all applications. Find out more during FI Asia and FI India, where we will be demonstrating exciting formulations and solutions that will certainly create a wow-effect.
The RIC in Singapore will support the Asia Pacific region, acting as a catalyst for innovation across Asia Pacific, while collaborating closely with our local application laboratories to unveil pioneering formulations for health and wellness.
