What kind of growth do you aspire to in the next few years; in which sectors, markets or regions do you see significant growth opportunities?

Our strategic plan shows a focus on our traditional core activities, like food and nutrition, pharmaceuticals, personal care and animal nutrition. On average, we strive for double-digit growth, but I have to add to that that we differentiate our ambitions region-by-region and market-by-market. In our strategy, we have a focus on three regions - Europe, Southeast Asia and the Americas - to expand our business.

Traditionally, we have been very strong in Europe and we have representations in all of the European Union countries. We are still steadily growing our business in our traditional European countries with an expanding supplier base. Additionally, we have strong positions in the Central and Eastern European markets, including the former CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries, where we are actually expanding very rapidly. The same goes for Russia and Turkey, where we have a focus on food and nutrition, and personal care.

For Barentz, the Asia Pacific region definitively represents a huge potential for our growth. On the Barentz expansion into Southeast Asia, Pavel Kratochvil, executive vice president of Barentz International, says: "It fits right into our strategy of wanting to be close to our customers to develop premium and innovative ingredients solutions together. In the last two years we saw a substantial growth with our Asian customers, making it essential for us to be here, to work on innovative products for the Asian market together, which works very well through our own Barentz Food & Nutrition concept center located at our Vitablend premises in Singapore."

After the establishment of a regional head office and a production hub in Singapore in 2012, Barentz has expanded into Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. Very recently, Barentz announced a joint-venture agreement with Additive Solutions, a leading distribution company in Australia, serving also the New Zealand market.

The expansion of Barentz does not stop in Southeast Asia. Pavel Kratochvil says: "For years, we have been doing business in North America through our Vitablend operation. Our next step is to leverage the Barentz supplier relations, knowledge and expertise in the Americas. We are now in the process of establishing our footprint in North America, in cooperation with our strategic partner NKC USA. Operating from Cincinnati, Barentz will focus on bringing food and nutrition ingredients and solutions to customers in the USA."

How do you intend to implement these plans and seize these opportunities?

We have a well-developed strategic planning process and we are lucky to have been in business for more than 60 years, so we have a very good network all over the world. We have a small team in charge of new business development and these people have a keen eye for market developments and good people. Our implementation plan is always to have local people on the ground in every country we operate in, so we immediately can leverage their knowledge and network. Another important element of our strategy in new markets is that we want to be supported and backed by our principals in these markets, so we can go to our customers with a complete product portfolio.