Corbion management presents Strategy Update
At the Strategy Update for analysts and investors in Amsterdam today, Corbion management will present its updated strategic direction for 2015-2018. Corbion will focus on strengthening its core business in ingredients for food and biochemicals ("Biobased Ingredients"), while leveraging its technology to build new business platforms in the biotechnology arena ("Biobased Innovations").
Tjerk de Ruiter, CEO of Corbion, comments: "Our updated strategy addresses the global megatrends of resource depletion, population growth and food security. With our 80 years of experience and knowledge in lactic acid fermentation, protected by IP and proprietary knowledge, we are well positioned to alleviate the impact of these trends with our biobased solutions. Corbion will accelerate its thrust into the biotechnology arena, making the next step in the bioplastics value chain by becoming a PLA producer. With entry into PLA, Corbion will bring new biodegradable solutions to the plastic market."
Strategy Update: "Disciplined Value Creation"
In its core, Corbion is a strong biobased ingredients company in food and biochemicals. Our food ingredients provide safe and healthy food for a growing population, while reducing food waste. Our biochemical ingredients provide solutions based on renewable materials and resource efficient processes. At the same time, we build new business platforms in biotechnology based on our lactic acid expertise.
Our Biobased Ingredients business is characterized by modest growth, good margins and cash generation. In Biobased Innovations we have a portfolio with large growth opportunities, which requires significant investments. To increase value creation we will use a differentiated management and capital allocation approach for these two businesses.
Biobased Ingredients: "Strengthening the Core"
The Biobased Ingredients business unit, comprising the food- and biochemical businesses, will focus on improved financial performance. Differentiated market strategies and portfolio choices have been defined to deliver increased cash-flow and returns across these businesses. To improve productivity, we have initiated "Streamline", a program to align the organization to these portfolio choices, simplify our business processes, and optimize our manufacturing footprint.
This will result in about 200 job losses across the company and annual cost savings of EUR 20 million, both by 2016. This includes the consolidation of our blending operations in Totowa, New Jersey, USA, triggering the closure of our Kansas Avenue facility (Kansas, USA). Associated one-off