Nexira, an family-owned ingredients supplier specializing in the worldwide acacia gum market, announced that it has seen the best profitability this year since its creation in 1895, despite the global health crisis and its impact on the market. These results, the company said, will allow it to independently undertake increasing production capacities, make new acquisitions, and continue its commitment to carbon neutrality with its Inavea range of ingredients which were recently certified as carbon neutral.
 
“Nexira generates 90% of its turnover internationally. The United States is an essential outlet for food supplements, a country to which we have exported for 40 years, where we have a permanent office with a dozen employees. We are carefully watching the acquisition files that arise,” Mathieu Dondain, Nexira’s managing director, said. Since 1982, the company has been operating in New Jersey.
 
Nexira’s turnover of nearly $150 million (+4%) was boosted by the very strong growth of the Health division (+18%) which reached $40.9 million, particularly related to its establishment and ongoing development in the U.S. (+45%). The Health division has seen international acclaim in the Nutraceuticals sector, and has allowed the company to reach these new heights, which are the best figures the company has seen internationally since its inception. All of the group’s divisions, in both France and the U.S., have been steadily increasing.
 
Major Events
 
The company’s Health division has grown due to a range of product offerings particularly suited to categories of immune support, digestive health, slimming, and stress management. To support the growth of its healthcare division, the Lamothe industrial plant has acquired more than 16,000 sq. feet of additional production facilities. The production capacity of Serqueux, the world’s largest acacia gum processing unit, has been increased to reach nearly 30,000 tons per year.
 
In other news, the company has launched an organic range, Inavea, which recently obtained a carbon neutrality certificate. This further strengthens Nexira’s positioning towards health nutrition with sales expected to exceed $12 million within 5 years. This new range will align with the company’s broader carbon reduction goals slated to be met by 2025. This approach is voluntary according to the Paris Climate Agreement, which the U.S. rejoined effective this month, as only companies with more than 500 employees are required to carry out a carbon footprint. Nexira, which has 250 employees, aims to become carbon neutral in 2021.
 
“This project is an opportunity to promote a whole sector,” Dondain said. “As the world leader in acacia, we have a corporate responsibility. We must look to the future and uphold strong values, ones that make sense and correspond to our activities. Carbon neutrality is certainly an ambitious project but it is ultimately the concrete expression of all the actions we have been taking for a long time. We hope that as many companies as possible will move in this direction.”
 
For 50 years, the company has been involved with sustainable development by protecting the origins of its raw materials. Nexira works alongside the NGO SOS SAHEL to prevent deforestation and contribute to the socioeconomic development of populations located in the regions of Africa where its raw materials are sourced. To meet its challenges, Nexira is supported by EcoAct, a leading company in environmental and carbon strategies. According to EcoAct’s interlocutor, Jean-Baptiste Martin, “Nexira has set itself an ambitious trajectory in line with the Paris agreements with the same level of requirement and reflection of very large groups.”
 
“To contain global warming, we must reduce our emissions. Agri-food companies will be forced to do so. They are our clients. We now know from the Paris Agreement that manufacturers will sooner or later have to label the environmental value of their product in order to offer consumers a new criterion of choice. We are now able to supply them with the first range of carbon neutral ingredients,” Simon Levesque, director of Business Development at Nexira, said.