Johan De Schepper, CEO of Nuscience, joined the Sermo Café on site at EuroTier 2018 in Hannover, Germany, to discuss recent progress.
Another top example of advancements showcased at EuorTier 2018 is the progress of Nuscience, a member of the Royal Agrifirm Group, which has taken its innovative solutions portfolio to a new level.
The future-focused company approaches the animal feed industry with two focused business units, Nutrition4U and Health4U. Nutrition4U by Nuscience is a range of young animal nutrition concepts, customized premixes and performing concentrates. Health4U by Nuscience offers innovative additives and functional feed ingredients.
Johan De Schepper, CEO of Nuscience, joined the Sermo Café on site at EuroTier 2018 in Hannover, Germany, to discuss recent progress.
Q: The AgriFirm VIP event where Nuscience was also featured marked another milestone for the company. What stood out for you about this event?
De Schepper: It’s about progress and working together. All the people at the event have been a part of this. It’s nice to celebrate progress but at the same time we need to keep focused on the important things that got us there.
For our Nuscience team, that comes down to our way of working. First of all, we focus on innovation excellence. We want to come up with innovative ideas, innovative technologies, so that is one of our core tasks. Next to that, more and more, we see it is not only knowing things but having data to direct the best approach. As a result, we also have a growing focus on information-based solutions, which involves for example collecting data and building algorithims to use the data. And that’s also a workstream within Royal Agrifirm that we call information-based solutions. The fourth focus is operational excellence – having high quality in every aspect of our operations. Commercial excellence is the fourth stream – trying to serve our customer according to their needs.
Q: How important is it today to have a clear message on sustainability? How is this message aligned across the spectrum of Nuscience activity?
De Schepper: I can be very clear on this. This is the strategy we have. Everything that we do, every step we make, we check is this aligned with what we want to realize as a company. It’s a very important supporting element . . . you have that very clear strategy. Every decision we take, whether it’s buying a company or hiring a collaborator working on certain solutions, we’re always looking at that strategy and make sure our decision is a fit. Sustainability the cornerstone of our strategy and everything must fit that concept. That’s it. There’s no other agenda.
Q: What developments you are currently excited about?
De Schepper: A good example of the sustainable innovations we are continuing to achieve is our Aim for Zero program, which we are launching at EuroTier 2018. It’s a program rather than simply a product. It is part of a strategy to replace zinc oxide around weaning. This approach of program solutions is something I believe
There is a rising demand for sustainable solutions that is worldwide. For us it’s very important that as we innovate with new ideas that they come from the market. Our salespeople and clients share the problems they are dealing with and we try to listen as well as possible to the market.
Q: What does the future hold?
De Schepper: We need to have new innovations for future generations and that’s what our solutions are based on. We try to look at the challenges of today and tomorrow. We have to feed a world population of 50 billion people in 2050 and this is a huge challenge. Perceptions of our customers change that’s why we need to adapt rather fast in the industry. For example, changing from an antibiotic environment to a non-antibiotic environment is possible but it is a huge challenge and we need to look for solutions there. And we need to do it caring about our customers but also about the consumers. There are big challenges to be sure but all we are confident in our ability to provide solutions.