Facing up to the current challenging economic climate Danish ingredients company Chr Hansen last month lifted previous profit forecasts for the year on the back of decent ingredients growth and higher exchange rates. Next week at the FiE the €2bn company will promote its concept of 'working partnerships' to encourage innovation.
"We believe that true innovation in products and solutions for the food industry can only take place through a close cooperation with the customers," said Hans-Christian Ambjerg, group vice president, business development at the company.
Innovation in the food industry is key to sustaining, and building on, market share. A phenomenon that Chr Hansen is obviously keen to tap into, as well as global trends.
"Consumers demand different flavour and performance characteristics, and our customers need to follow those trends fast. They can do so by choosing our ingredients," said Eva Stenby at Chr Hansen.
In a bid to boost its natural colour business - a growing trend in food additives - earlier this year the company launched a new black natural colour onto the market.
Chr Hansen spent one year in the laboratory formulating the free-flowing liquid CapColor CV-WSS that it maintains is a fitting alternative to the messy natural colour Carbo vegetabilis - a carbonised vegetable matter - traditionally used by manufacturers.
"Our expectations of CapColor CV-WSS is that by releasing such a new inventive product our whole Natural Colours business will expand, as it also creates possibilities for creating new colours by mixing it with our other CapColor range," Annette Moellgaard, marketing manager at Chr Hansen told FoodNavigator.com.