Nexira has become a 100% privately owned company. The French headquartered natural extracts supplier, which is the global leader in acacia gum, has acquired the 24% of stock that had been owned by financial sleeping partner investor Edmond de Rothschild since 2010.
The move comes as Nexira looks to expand its position in health & nutrition, with plans in place to grow this part of the business to make up more than 35% of turnover by 2020. This growth should partially come through innovations such as the branded ingredients Cognivia [for cognitive health], Ensotim [for men’s health] and an as yet undisclosed ingredient for weight management.
Mathieu Dondain, Managing Director of Nexira confirmed that the company became 100% independent and family owned, after acquiring these outstanding shares on September 15. “Being family owned and enforcing our independence is a major strategic focus for the company. Nowadays this is not so common, when you see a lot of companies who are deciding to dilute themselves,” he told FoodIngredientsFirst in an exclusive interview. “This is totally understandable when you need to make acquisitions and external growth. But for us, we are a several decades company old and being independent and family owned are very important values in our culture,” he adds.
Dondain believes that the move will allow the company more flexibility going forward. “We will have more flexibility in terms of making the decisions that we want; whether these are for small acquisitions, medium, or even very big ones.”
Mathieu Dondain is the fourth generation of the Dondain family to be at the helm of Nexira, which was renamed after the merging of CNI, Bio Serae Laboratoires and NutriProcess under a single banner in late 2011.
He claims that the move towards 100% independence is not going to slow down the company’s need for external growth. “We will just do it a little bit later, because we want to finalize this external growth by the end of 2017, especially in North America,” he says.
Dondain notes that the move will not affect the company’s cash flow, because they had been considering the possibility of acquiring these shares for some time. The shares were partially acquired by debt, but also from personal investments too from his father and Nexira President, Stéphane Dondain, but also including from himself.
“During the next 12-18 months, we are going to finalize the structure and consolidation, in order to prepare ourselves for external growths. We are working on real organic growth and to prepare for external growth in other areas of the world. But we are not going to be affected by this investment,” he stresses.
Responses to the move have been positive, both externally and internally, he claims. “Our strategic customers are welcoming and enthusiastic and understand the family values. Internally our executive committee was unanimously involved and welcoming to go into that direction,” says Dondain.
“If, in a couple of years, we have a very good opportunity to build a partnership with a much bigger company, we could partially sell up. But this would not be a plan before the mid or long term,” he admits.
The company’s complete independence and positive cash flow situation should further benefit R&D and innovation. At Vitafoods 2016 in Geneva, Nexira launched an ingredient based on the cognitive potential of the synergy between two sage extracts: Cognivia. Sage, a well-known plant species from Lamiaceae family, could present many beneficial health effects, notably on memory assessment. The product will also be marketed to the US market for the first time at SupplySideWest in Las Vegas, in October 2016.
Source: Food Ingredients First
