Olivier Rigaud, CEO of Corbion, says the strategy builds on Corbion’s “solid” foundation. “In food, Corbion has developed increasingly from an ingredients business into a solutions business. We plan to expand on this solutions model with natural food preservation and functional systems as our core capabilities, enabling us to accelerate growth in close adjacencies.”
In lactic acid, the company will work to capitalize on market and technology leadership. “[W]e have decided to build a new lactic acid plant at the existing Corbion site in Rayong Province in Thailand,” Rigaud adds. “As PLA [polylactic acid] is developing better than expected, the urgency behind expanding our lactic acid production capacity has only increased.” The company also aims to make its early-stage omega-3 DHA business profitable by 2022.
The company has also identified 17% of its sales as “non-core.” Such businesses include frozen dough and its development work on 2,5-Furandicarboxylic acid. The company is evaluating exit scenarios for these units.