Whipping up a storm

While foamers, whipping agents and topping bases are not quite as sexy as the blemish-busting and fat-fighting bioactives elsewhere in DMV International's portfolio, they certainly keep the bean counters happy, says R&D and quality assurance director Hans Westerbeek.

"Take instant cappuccinos. The western European market has been growing in the double-digits, so if you can offer superior functionality or sensory qualities with a longer shelf-life at a better price or with a better nutritional profile, you can chase a lot of business."

A subsidiary of Dutch dairy products giant Campina, DMV has developed a flurry of new products to tap into growth opportunities in desserts, bakery and hot beverages including Aerion DP 90 (a vegetable-derived base for instant aerated desserts, ice creams, fillings and mousses), and Aerion Foam 210 (a non-hydrogenated foamer for instant hot drinks with less saturated fat and virtually no trans-fats). Both rely on research into the functionality of emulsions, something Westerbeek spent several years researching as part of a PhD sponsored by DMV back in the 1980s.

However, bosses are also counting on DMV's 30 years of experience in chopping up dairy proteins to create hydrolysates and bioactive peptides with exciting nutritional benefits to generate some serious cash in the fast-growing nutritional and functional markets, says Westerbeek.

Although DMV is targeting several markets including beauty-from-within, bone health, cardiovascular health, sports nutrition, immune health and food for the elderly with its proteins, the key opportunities lie in infant nutrition and weight management, says Westerbeek. "Weight management is a mass market opportunity, but we are still studying a number of possible mechanisms of action [covering how milk proteins can help people manage their weight], not just how proteins affect hormones linked to satiety."

New opportunities will also emerge following the merger of DMV's parent company Campina and its rival Friesland Foods, predicts Westerbeek, who leads a team of scientists and applications specialists based at Innovium, DMV's new innovation centre at Wageningen.

However, it is not yet clear how this will affect things on the ground. "The deal's in the hands of the competition authorities at the moment, so I expect that not a great deal will happen before the third quarter of 2008," he says.

Under pressure​

In the meantime, the pressure is on to identify other new opportunities, which could come from developing in-house capabilities, collaborations or even acquisitions, he says. "We are exploring all options, but we have to build the business case." As to how best to assess such opportunities, few businesses have developed a fail-safe method of picking winners, admits Westerbeek.

However, you can at least reduce the risk of failure by applying consistent metrics to the assessment process, he says. "New products are expected to account for at least 10% of our sales, so we have to come up with projects that will deliver volume and margin. As a result, we have really professionalised our approach to scrutinising new ideas. Every potential project is fed into a stage-gate-based portfolio management system that scores it against key criteria and helps us screen out things that won't deliver." The same process should also be applied at every stage of a project, not just at the beginning, he stresses. "There are always projects that don't turn out the way you hoped; you have to know when to kill them off."

Another key objective is trying to achieve more integrated project management through better communication between R&D and marketing, he says. "It's easy to stay too focused on your area without thinking about what is running in parallel."

Although Campina owns DMV, it doesn't necessarily get first refusal on its new ingredients, says Westerbeek. Likewise, while DMV/Campina is owned by dairy farmers, it does not get special rates for its raw ingredients, even if it does have more security of supply than some competitors, says Westerbeek. "If dairy prices go up, we are affected like everyone else."

While some predict that cash-strapped consumers could reject costly functional foods in the current economic climate, Westerbeek says: "If you've got a good product that really does what you claim it does, there'll be a market for it."