5Q’s: Novonesis – as 2 becomes 1 over 100 years of experience comes together
At the start of 2024, Novonesis was created from Novozymes and Chr. Hansen. All About Feed talked with Executive Vice President, planetary health biosolutions, Novonesis Tina Sejersgård Fanø, who provides some insights into the company’s current and future activities.
At the start of 2024, Novonesis was created from Novozymes and Chr. Hansen. The name means ‘A new beginning.’ The Novonesis staff of 10,000, drawn from its legacy companies, service over 30 industries with enzyme, protein and microbe innovations from over 20 manufacturing sites. The company holds over 9900 patents and has more than 2000 dedicated R&D experts at about 40 R&D and application centres worldwide.
How did Novonesis come about?
By bringing together 2 extraordinary companies, we stand stronger in creating the solutions needed to feed and fuel a growing world affordably and sustainably. Both parent companies bring more than 100 years of experience into the new company.
We have a unique library of strains – both in size, complexity, and accessibility. This is one of the world’s biggest sources of commercial strains that we can use to bring groundbreaking innovations to market.
Please tell us about your team
We have a very strong team from both legacy companies. I am very excited about the way the teams are working together and to see how our complementary competencies fit extremely well together.
The team is diverse and ranges from microbiologists screening and designing products in the laboratory, across scientists with capabilities to upscale and produce robust and high-quality products in our facilities and it includes technical and commercial personnel supporting our partners and end users.
What are some of your long-term aims and what is your strategic direction in the feed sector?
Our animal biosolutions support more sustainable livestock production and our innovations help livestock producers around the globe. It is our ambition to provide feed enzymes to increase the effectiveness of raw materials, silage inoculants to get the most out of your silage, and animal probiotics to improve the GIT and increase animal robustness and hence performance.
The complementarity between the 2 legacy companies in the field of agriculture opens up the potential for revenue synergies. Let me share an example of what we are doing. In animal biosolutions, we are bringing a swine product developed in legacy Novozymes to the US market, utilising the expanded animal biosolutions channel from legacy Chr. Hansen.
We live in a world where there will be 400 million more humans by 2030 and a larger middle-class population.
What are your goals for the next 5 years?
Novonesis is performing very well, delivering on our promises, and is set to capture and accelerate growth in the attractive biosolutions space. We recently announced that our 2024 outlook for pro forma organic sales growth is now expected to be at the upper end of the 5-7% range. Looking ahead to 2025, we maintain the target for organic sales growth at 6-8% CAGR. Beyond 2025, it is our ambition to further accelerate organic sales growth.
Tell us about your biggest strengths
We live in a world where there will be 400 million more humans by 2030 and a larger middle-class population. At the same time, we are seeing increased food quality requirements and production as well as increased awareness of chemical pesticides and antibiotics with more stringent regulations. This creates significant potential for our biosolutions for healthy and sustainable animal production that can support farmers across the globe.
Our current efforts are focused on our customers and ensuring we build a strong team that can deliver the greatest value to customers. While doing so, we are creating a new company and learning from the 2 legacy companies to bring the ‘best of both.’
