Algaia announces the appointment of Frederic Faure, one of the co-founders of the company, as Chief Executive Officer of the entire group from June 1, 2020. Frédéric Faure replaces Fabrice Bohin who remains a shareholder and member of the Board of Administration, while becoming the new Diana Food President within Symrise Nutrition.
Strategic vision and field experience
An engineer from ENSCPB Bordeaux, Frederic Faure has almost 20 years of experience in specialty food ingredients from land and marine plants. In particular, Frédéric has an excellent knowledge of the technological, industrial and commercial challenges of this sector. After having worked, in France and in China, in various positions as site manager, product manager and developing ranges for large groups such as Cargill, Evonik and Lucas Meyer, he joins Algaia in 2016, as it was being created, and takes the direction of the business development of the company while piloting the set up of the R&D center in Saint Lô, Normandy, France. Within 4 years, the company has grown from a start-up of less than 500,000 euros turnover to a company of more than 20 million euros and nearly 100 people, exporting to almost 50 countries in the world. In the first four months of 2020, Algaia recorded more than 25% growth compared to the previous year.
“The company is entering a new era. Its main challenges lie now in meeting the growth in demand and increasing its production capacities for both Alginates and Biostimulants. It now needs a general management with a stronger industrial background, located in the immediate vicinity of its production site.”, said Fabrice Bohin “I am handing over to Frederic who will benefit from a very experienced management team capable of taking Algaia to the next level.”
Key player in seaweed extracts
This announcement comes at a time when Algaia just finalized a 2.2 million euros round of financing exclusively handled by its strategic investors (Maabarot and the Velge family) and the three co-founders of the company (eg Fabrice Bohin, Frederic Faure and Franck Hennequart). This roundtable will allow to keep on rolling out its industrial strategy based on the valorization of seeweed biomass and the co-extraction of compounds and actives.
” Algaia is today recognized worldwide as a key player in seaweed extracts. The quality of our products and our service no longer needs to be demonstrated “, notes Franck Hennequart, Group Innovation Director. “Now, the objective is to continue to develop innovative and sustainable natural solutions for the food, cosmetic, medical devices and plant health industries”, he adds.
Over the past three years, a total of 7 million euros have been invested in the Algaia plant in Lannilis, in Brittany and an additional 1 million euros in its R&D center in Saint-Lô, in Normandy. Therefore, an industrial pilot production line was opened on the Saint-Lô site in 2019. 2019 was also a year of product launches for Algaia with the range of AlganactTM biostimulants and VegAlg® solutions for vegan and vegetarian products.
A reliable and resilient organization
Since its creation, Algaia has focused on its sustainable development policy and its values. In order to ensure a reliable and quality supply of algae biomass, the company works closely with the seaweed industry to harvest fresh algae a few kilometers from its factory in Brittany. The control of its supplies, the efficiency of its teams and the excellent relationship with its business partners enabled Algaia to reach an OTD rate of 95% during the Covid-19 crisis.
” Algaia has shown resilience during the crisis we have just experienced thanks to its values and the motivation of its teams, “underlines Frederic Faure. “Customers are increasingly turning to suppliers whom they can trust and who have demonstrated their reliability in the face of events such as the Covid-19 crisis. Algaia is one of them and we will do everything to maintain the quality of our offer and remain faithful to our values.”