Happy new year to you all! As Solina takes a step back at the end of another transformational year, I would like to take the opportunity to thank you all for your part in our journey and provide an update on what we’ve achieved together and, most importantly, what’s still to come.
2021 has been for us a key milestone on our sustainability journey. After acting on the findings of a bottom-up assessment, we are now focused on 5 P’s — people, planet, partners, performance and products & solutions — that position us to be a global leader in the creation of integrated taste, functional and nutritional ingredient solutions fulfilling our purpose of making food matter for people and the planet. We are taking numerous concrete actions, particularly around better for you solutions for our customers such as plant-based food solutions leveraging our unique new proteins food R&D centre in Belgium or natural solution offerings for the meat and ready meals sector. And there’s much more to come.
Innovation is at the heart of our model and in only 2 years time no less than 50 people have joined our international R&D and technical team, to continue to respond the best we can to consumer priorities shifts, focusing our energy on the creation of more natural, better-for-you food solutions resulting in more sustainable, healthier products with no compromise on taste and texture.
We remained focused on those long-term goals even during a year that featured pressing challenges. We saw double-digit jumps in the prices of raw materials and significant increases in lead times. Our sourcing experts, with tenacity and creativity, have been a great asset to deliver the level of service our customers expect. This has been possible through the great support of our supply partners whom I thank sincerely.
Hard not to mention COVID 19. Even before the pandemic, we tried to give Solina an organisational structure and culture that would enable us to respond with resilience and agility to changing circumstances. In those exceptional circumstances, for the second year in a row, our teams at all levels of the organisation have continued to hold up their common ideals to serve our customers and ensure a proper business continuity. Therefore, with profound gratitude, Solina Executive team expresses its appreciation and recognition of our people’s extraordinary commitments.
To conclude, 2021 has also marked a new chapter for the whole company. Since July 2021, Astorg has become the new majority shareholder of Solina endorsing our ambitions and growth plan. Our new sponsor has supported Solina day 1 leading to no less than 2 acquisitions in Q4 2021. We have indeed welcomed new colleagues from Asenzya (United States) and Food Compounds (The Netherlands) strengthening our footprint in North America as well as our position in savoury solutions and coating systems.
We look forward to working with you in 2022 and once again, let me wish you all the best.
At Solina, we make food matter.
Kind regards,
Anthony Francheterre
Chief Executive Officer
