Although remaining independent companies in term of equity, Gelymar and Algaia have always shared the same ethics, mind-sets and value proposition with their manufacturing facilities being located next to abundant fresh seaweed biomass with most sustainable production processes.
“As we like to say, we both share the same ‘ethiquity’ in the way we serve the market in its evolution toward natural and sustainable sourcing.”, comments Andres Hohlberg.
Ethiquity at work
Over the Covid-19 period, this concept enabled the two companies not only to maintain a high performance in terms of customers supply but also work by anticipation to face the dramatic increase of the customers’ demand across the globe. In addition, the two companies were also able to support each other, share experience, procedures installed in each facility to secure the health and wellness of their respective employees.
“The set-up we have established with Algaia gives customers the better of the two worlds: local and sustainable sourcing, global customer reach which proved to be extremely efficient through the Covid-19 crisis”, says Andres Hohlberg, CEO of Gelymar SA.
“None of our respective plants experienced any disruption of activity due to Covid-19” commented Fabrice Bohin, CEO of Algaia. “Our integrated Customer Back Office organization, already equipped with adequate IT remote systems have ensured constant dialogue with customers across the globe. Working by anticipation, we secured the necessary European inventory from our partner in Chile. Both for Algaia manufactured products and for Gelymar, where products sold in Europe go through Algaia’s distribution network, have achieved over 95% of the deliveries On Time in Full even with a demand increasing 20 to 30% over last year. Even our R&D department continued to operate but with employees rotation to comply with distancing rules” he added.
Fitting the world after Covid-19
Market demand has evolved over the years toward sustainability, reliability, traceability and use of local raw materials harvested next to the processing facilities. With the crisis, this trend is already accelerating as Fabrice Bohin notices. “Covid-19 is not just a sanitary crisis. We are entering into a new world. We can already see customers looking for more regional to local sourcing. They also want suppliers they can trust and who have been able to cope and be reliable through this unique situation.”
“There is no better place than Chile to produce Carrageenan when one looks for high traceability and low environmental footprint.”adds Andres Hohlberg “Our calculations show that we save up to ten times in CO2 emission that way, compared to a situation when dried seaweed is imported from another continent for rehydrating it before extraction.”
There is no denying that the ethiquity concept fits the world post-coronavirus in need of more sustainability and solidarity.