FDBusiness.com

Naturex is planning a major new drive to highlight how its extensive range of fruit ingredients could help manufacturers inject growth into the market for premium quality indulgent products, such as cakes, biscuits, confectionery, desserts and other treats.

The Avignon-based company produces a wide selection of processed fruit ingredients in a variety of formats, including powders, granules and crisps, as well as extracts.

Naturex believes its ingredients could help manufacturers gain an edge in the highly competitive market for sweet treats by creating product concepts that meet demand both for enjoyment and quality – as well clean labels and improved nutrition content.

Antoine Dauby, Marketing Director at Naturex, says: “Indulgence is very big business. For example, sales of sweet bakery products such as cakes and biscuits were worth Eur8.56 billion across Western Europe in 2011, according to Mintel. Clearly it is a very large market indeed, and a great opportunity.

“However, it is also a very competitive market and growth opportunities can be hard to find. In fact, Mintel figures show that year-on-year growth in the sweet bakery category between 2010 and 2011 was only 1.3%. Further, Mintel forecasts that the market will grow just 1.6% in 2012.”

He continues: “These market conditions mean it is very important for manufacturers to create excitement among shoppers by finding a point of difference that adds value to their proposition. Our ingredients can help companies do this by improving their recipes in a way that is in tune with the trend for more natural and healthier products, enabling them to achieve standout with indulgent concepts. Our ingredients taste great, offer excellent colour attributes and they are completely natural. They are also very easy to incorporate into a range of indulgent recipes with no formulation problems.”

For further information visit www.naturex.com.