AGRANA’s strategy
“At AGRANA we have a shared vision: quality leadership in turning agricultural raw materials into value-added Sugar and Starch products, and in the processing of fruit. With our attention to quality and efficiency and our 52 locations around the world, we are the preferred supplier for companies in the food industry and for non-food applications.”
As an Austrian industrial group with an international focus, AGRANA’s Sugar and Starch segments operate in Europe and its Fruit segment’s operations are global. In these markets AGRANA commands a leading position in the industrial processing of raw materials. The Group pursues a growth strategy oriented to the respective local market opportunities. Long-lasting, stable customer and supplier relationships and continual growth in the company’s value are major cornerstones of the corporate strategy, which is guided by the principles of sustainable business management. AGRANA’s aim is to provide both its globally operating and its regional customers worldwide with the best product quality, optimum service and innovative product development ideas and expertise.
AGRANA controls and manages the value chain from the purchase of agricultural raw materials to the production of the resulting intermediate goods for industrial customers (and end products for consumers in the case of the Sugar segment). AGRANA utilises the Group’s strategic know-how across segment boundaries. This pertains especially to agricultural grower contract management and raw material procurement, the knowledge of customer requirements and markets, the opportunities for the development of inter-segment products, and synergies in logistics, purchasing, sales and finance. These commonalities – which make the Group more than the sum of its parts – form the basis for AGRANA’s good market position in relation to competitors in all product groups, for its innovative strength and its lean cost position.
Sugar segment strategy
The strategic goal: Customer- and market-oriented growth.
In the Sugar segment, AGRANA is ideally positioned as a supplier in the Central, Eastern and Southeastern European countries. Through high quality standards, an extensive Sugar portfolio and the building of the Group’s regional brands, AGRANA differentiates itself from the competition.
Starch segment strategy
The strategic goals: Organic growth, and the creation of value-added in custom-made products.
In the Starch segment, AGRANA focuses on highly refined specialty products. Innovative, customer-driven products supported by application advice and continuous product development, combined with relentless cost optimisation, are the key to the segment’s success. Examples are the leading position in organic and in GMO-free starches (not derived from genetically modified organisms) for the food industry and, in the non-food sector, the leadership role in specialty starches for the paper, textile, cosmetics, pharmaceutical and building materials industries. AGRANA’s core competence – processing agricultural raw materials into industrial products – is also the basis for the Bioethanol business. In Austria and Hungary, AGRANA is a leading vendor of this lower-CO2 fuel.
Fruit segment strategy
The strategic goal: Customer- and market-oriented global growth.
In the Fruit segment, the Group’s business divisions are AGRANA Fruit (the fruit preparations activities; about 80% of segment revenue) and AGRANA Juice (about 20% of segment revenue):
- AGRANA Fruit, acting as a partner to food manufacturers, produces customer-specific fruit preparations for the dairy, ice-cream and baking industries. With local production units close to customers, AGRANA is the world leader in this global market, is further expanding its presence and following its internationally operating customers into new markets.
- AGRANA Juice produces mainly juice concentrates from apples, red fruits and berries. Manufacturing locations near the fruit growing areas allow AGRANA to ensure the high quality of the products and consolidate and expand the global sales to the beverage industry.
Through measures to achieve organic growth, and with the help of acquisitions and cooperative new ventures, the Group is able to consolidate and steadily add to its strong worldwide market position.
Synergy strategy
The strategic goal: Use synergies between business segments to position the Group optimally for the increasingly volatile operating environment in the segments.
The synergy strategy can be thought of as encompassing the three individual segments’ strategies, and also includes the sustainability dimension. For AGRANA, the environmental and the financial aspect of sustainability are inseparably linked. The Group’s aim is to manage its business for the long term and avoid an excessive focus on short-term financial success. This is one of the reasons why AGRANA believes in managing natural resources sustainably.Prominent examples of the best possible, sustainable utilisation of raw materials are the recently launched CO2 recovery project and a new wheat Starch plant being built in Pischelsdorf, Austria, where the multi-stage, synergistic processing of agricultural raw materials will put into practice the principle of maximising the circular flows of resources.
Capital market strategy
The strategic goal: A long-term partnership with shareholders.
The Group’s sound equity base gives AGRANA strategic flexibility. In addition to its ability to self-finance, AGRANA’s also has access to high, committed credit lines for its overall financing needs. AGRANA sees its shareholders as long-term partners in realising the Group’s goals and offers them an attractive longer-term return on investment at a reasonable level of risk even in a volatile environment. With a policy of open and transparent communication, AGRANA aims to safeguard investors’ confidence in the Group and make its business performance and management decisions predictable and easy to understand.