Business performance

Functional Ingredients & Solutions

The Functional Ingredients & Solutions business unit at Corbion specializes in nature-based ingredient technologies for the global food and biochemical markets. With a foundation in advanced fermentation and blending capabilities, we deliver value-adding functionalities to exceed customer expectations for quality, safety, and environmental sustainability. Doing so in 2024 meant navigating a uniquely complex combination of economic pressures, market dynamics, geopolitical tensions, climate change, and shifting consumer behaviors.

Food

Economic challenges prompted consumers to reevaluate their priorities, placing a greater emphasis on holistic health—mental, physical, and emotional—as well as the health of the planet. Budget-conscious consumers sought ways to stretch their spending, often opting for discounts or value brands for everyday purchases. However, when it came to the products they truly valued, consumers demonstrated a willingness to splurge, reflecting a nuanced approach to spending.

This year also highlighted the growing tension between at-home and out-of-home dining, with many consumers striving to strike a balance. Trust in the food industry as a whole faced increasing scrutiny, amplifying the demand for transparency. Meanwhile, manufacturers grappled with elevated costs compared to the pre-pandemic period, focused on formulation alternatives and operational efficiencies to offset financial pressures. Supply chain disruptions began to ease, but costs remained elevated, affecting both operations and sales. These trends underscored the continued complexity and resilience required to adapt in an evolving landscape.

Against this backdrop, Corbion partnered with customers to deliver solutions that addressed these needs while supporting their long-term success in a competitive marketplace. Corbion’s Functional Ingredients & Solutions team achieved significant milestones throughout the year, strengthening our position as a leader in sustainable, innovative solutions.

Our expanded Pristine® dough improvers portfolio strengthened the bakery market by providing the functionality needed for healthier, nutritionally enhanced products like gluten-free and keto breads, enabling brands to excel in a label-conscious market. Similarly, our Ultra Fresh® portfolio advanced sugar reduction solutions for baked goods helped manufacturers lower input costs while preserving the high-quality textures, flavors, and consistency that keep consumers loyal to their brands.

We made strategic investments to expand our presence in high-growth regions. The acquisition of Novotech’s bread improver business positioned Corbion to capture opportunities in the rapidly expanding Indian bakery market, where urbanization and demand for convenience foods are driving significant growth. To support broader growth across the Asia Pacific region, we strengthened our partnership with IMCD to include Thailand, enhancing access to localized solutions in one of the world’s most dynamic food markets.

In Latin America, we completed a successful transition to our new facility in Querétaro, Mexico, boosting production capacity to keep pace with growing customer demand. This state-of-the-art plant enhances our capabilities, enabling greater operational efficiency and faster response times throughout the region.

In the tortilla market, we addressed a critical nutritional gap by collaborating with manufacturers to fortify corn tortillas with folic acid, aligning with public health goals and enabling customers to offer enhanced nutritional value in their products.

Our preservation expertise continued to evolve, furthering the introduction of natural antioxidants blends and ferments, through our Origin® and Verdad® portfolios. These clean-label solutions supported microbial stability and extended freshness and shelf life across diverse applications, including savory sauces, prepared foods, and applications in bakery, meat, and poultry, helping customers meet growing consumer expectations for safe, sustainable, and transparent ingredients. In 2024, our new Montgomery (US) vinegar plant began running at scale, bringing full insourcing benefits to our operations and ensuring a consistent supply of high-quality raw materials. Additionally, we developed dynamic temperature modeling to our AI-powered Listeria control model, providing customers with a cutting-edge tool to optimize food safety and shelf life under real-world conditions.

In the dairy market, we leveraged our stabilization expertise to expand into new applications, including creamers, sour cream, ice cream, and dairy alternative drinks, addressing trends toward premiumization and plant-based options. Backed by exceptional service, our Corbion Smart® solutions delivered superior functionality, ensuring the texture, consistency, and performance demanded by the dairy market.

In confectionery, we secured a patent for co-crystals, a proprietary innovation that enhances product stability and flavor delivery in hard and soft candies. Additionally, we expanded our offerings of blended acid solutions, helping customers achieve optimal product quality and performance in this growing category.

By responding to market challenges and leveraging opportunities for innovation and regional growth, Corbion demonstrated its ability to adapt and thrive in a dynamic global environment. Our achievements in 2024 reflect our commitment to empowering customers with the tools and solutions they need to succeed, while driving long-term value creation for our stakeholders.

Biochemicals

In 2024, the home and personal care sector faced growing pressure to adopt safer and more sustainable alternatives to traditional antimicrobials, driven by heightened safety concerns and evolving consumer expectations. As a result, brand owners increasingly prioritized solutions like PURAC® Sanilac, a biobased, sustainable ingredient ideal for cleaning formulations. This shift was further reinforced by private label brands, which launched new products incorporating Sanilac to meet rising demand for health-conscious and environmentally friendly options. These developments highlighted a significant market trend toward safer, more sustainable cleaning solutions, positioning Sanilac as a preferred choice for forward-thinking manufacturers.

The biochemicals market in the electronics sector stabilized in 2024 after reaching its lowest point during the summer. Improving demand for advanced electronic components, driven by technological innovation and consumer adoption, contributed to the sector's partial recovery. However, destocking efforts remained a priority as companies worked to align inventory levels with recovering market conditions. This recovery phase reflects a cautious yet optimistic outlook for the electronics sector as market conditions stabilize and demand for biobased solutions continues to grow.

Lactic Acid to our PLA joint venture

In 2024, the PLA market saw growth, particularly in Asia. The TotalEnergies Corbion joint venture remained focused on driving growth in established and emerging markets, leveraging technological advancements to meet increasing global demand for eco-friendly materials.

To meet the evolving needs of these and other markets, we launched our state-of-the-art circular lactic acid plant in Thailand in 2024. This facility reinforces Corbion’s commitment to sustainability by leveraging circular production methods that minimize waste and maximize resource efficiency.

Health & Nutrition

Nutrition

We are proud to report significant and profitable growth in the algae-based and fermentation-powered omega business. Our expansion within the aquaculture sector, particularly among major aquafeed producers, has allowed us to capitalize on industry growth. Additionally, we benefited from favorable pricing dynamics aligned with market-specific seasonal trends. Our strategic initiatives to expand into adjacent territories, such as pet food, have also contributed to our growth. These efforts will support sustainable future business success.

Aquaculture continues to play a prominent role in addressing food security, ocean protection, and economic prosperity. This is one of the reasons why Corbion partners with Nofima, a leading food research institute in Norway. In collaboration with Nofima and other forward-thinking leaders in the value chain, we continue to develop the Millennial Salmon project started in 2021. The goal of this project is to create the most sustainably farmed salmon by using novel ingredients with low carbon footprints while addressing the initiative’s millennial principles of life that are centered around health, purpose, trust, and societal and environmental impact.  We pursue similar initiatives for other markets because we believe in leveraging ecosystems to preserve what matters.

We remain committed to showcasing the power of algae fermentation on an industry-leading scale, providing reliable, high-quality nutrition to our customers who produce sustainable omega-based feed and food solutions to meet the growing demand for omega without adverse impacts to our oceans. Furthermore, we believe that all value chain partners benefit from our algae-based omega through reduced price volatility and seasonal dependencies.

Pharma

In 2024, the Pharma business continued to report modest volume/mix growth, driven mainly by increasing demand in targeted regions. Despite ongoing health reforms and other factors affecting global pharmaceutical supply chains, the supply chains of our markets are stabilized. Going forward, we expect this market to show continued growth in target regions where the number of patients with kidney and other chronic diseases grows, while access, availability, and affordability of medicine is improving.

We utilize our backward integrated position to ensure a consistent supply of high-quality ingredients to our customers, who use these sustainable ingredients in specialized medications for renal care and other treatments. Our PURASAL® pharma products are produced according to the strictest current Good Manufacturing Practice guidelines and comply with the highest quality standards.

Biomedical Polymers

2024 sales and margins in the Biomedical Polymers business show consistent healthy underlying base-levels, and we continue to see positive momentum within the medical device-related market, including orthopedics. This market maintained its performance thanks to healthy project developments supported by strong partnerships and regional growth. In addition to the healthy performance of ongoing business operations, developments in the field of controlled drug delivery softened due to formulation developments, regulatory registrations, and commercialization processes requiring more time than initially expected. Meanwhile, we see opportunities to enhance quality in this area and are committed to maintaining top standards. We aim to implement solutions for more reliable outcomes in the future.

We are leveraging our backward integrated position and are proud that our PURASORB® polymers are used by an increasing number of leading partners for a wide range of medical devices and controlled drug delivery formulations (e.g., long-acting injectables) that create new sustainable possibilities with better outcomes in terms of patients health and sustainability. Various applications are in different stages of clinical testing, including existing controlled-release technologies like long-acting injectables and new forms for different clinical indications and new delivery methods.

We will continue working with our (bio)pharmaceutical partners to leverage safe, quality resorbable polymers, aligning with healthcare trends and benefitting patients, partners, and the planet.