PHW Group driving vertical integration in Alternative Proteins business unit

Since establishing the Alternative Proteins business unit in 2018, the PHW Group has been systematically building strong networks and expertise in the fields of organic and food technologies. The focus is now on the expansion of a competitive, cross-value chain infrastructure in tandem with and complementary to the core business area of poultry. As Marcus Keitzer, Board Member for Alternative Proteins at the PHW Group, comments: “Our aim moving forwards is to transfer the successful vertical integration model from the Poultry business unit to our Alternative Protein Sources segment.”

As part of this strategy, the PHW Group is now entering the Food Ingredients market as the majority shareholder of the newly founded VTEC Ingredients GmbH. For this step, Dr Markus Veen, who holds a doctoral degree in biotechnology, has been brought on board as co-partner and future Managing Director. His business group has enjoyed success in the ingredients sector over many years, while Dr Veen himself will bring the requisite technical expertise to support this next step. The new company will be based in Engelsberg, Germany. As Dr. Markus Veen explains: “As experienced, creative and innovative experts in the areas of texturization, taste and food quality, we are delighted with the founding of VTEC Ingredients GmbH and close collaboration within the PHW Group. With this step, we are expanding our innovation process by combining a foundation of raw materials, recipes and process technologies with highly efficient food processing and the optimum networking of retail supply chains.”

Marcus Keitzer adds: “Through this new partnership, we will immediately and systematically connect our existing PHW infrastructure with upstream stages of the value-added chain. VTEC Ingredients GmbH will focus on the procurement, biotechnological processing and manufacturing of raw materials and additives for the production of plant-based sausage, meat and fish substitutes. The new company will coordinate its activities closely with the existing product development departments of the PHW Group, with the aim of continually enhancing the product range by expanding it to include further innovations, while existing PHW production facilities for sausage, meat and fish substitutes will now also be partially supplied by the new sister company. In addition, there are plans to unleash synergy potentials in relation to the production of primary products in the Poultry business unit. This will immediately put us in a position to respond to customer requirements and implement these not only more rapidly, but also more effectively. With this partnership, we are once again demonstrating our commitment to consistently pursuing our corporate mantra of ‘growth through diversity and foresight’ and are set to achieve growth across the Poultry and Alternative Proteins business units in a mutually beneficial manner.”

Image: Marcus Keitzer, Board Member for Alternative Proteins at the PHW Group, Peter Wesjohann, CEO of the PHW Group, and Dr. Markus Veen, Managing Director of VTEC Ingredients GmbH (from left to right).

Image source: Timo Lutz - Team für Industriefotografie