CSM Collective’s business strategy focuses on working with start-ups and collaborations
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Bakery ingredients major the CSM Collective has highlighted start-ups as a vital part of its growth strategy, managing director of CSM Group Christian Sobolta told FoodNavigator.
The multi-brand group, which is home to names including HiFood, Vitalfood and CSM Ingredients, is laser-focused on collaborating to grow, be it through start-ups or other relevant industry connections, said Sobolta.
“Start-ups, open innovation… we call it open collaboration where we invite start-ups to submit ideas to us,” he explained.
The business did not seek to take IP from start-ups, but to speed up processes and routes to market for them so CSM could benefit from the technology or NPD it owned.
How CSM Collective is working with start-ups
Where a product didn’t fit with CSM, the business would usually seek to partner it with another, non-competing business. “We’re humble to help them connect to other businesses, start-ups are our peers,” added Sobolta.
It was a model that helped to make CSM stronger, but also the industry and the business’s wider value chain, he explained.
“It helps to scale, grow our network, perception and knowledge.”
CSM was exploring opportunities with start-ups specialising in the health & nutrition; clean-label; sustainability; and healthy indulgence areas.
“We look at what’s happening in these trends and look for value-added platforms for our business,” he said.
Within the wider, core business, the CSM Collective was seeking to bolster its key focus areas, including within its heartland of bakery.
CSM Collective’s growth plans
It was also exploring value solutions and was “actively opening up” the US market with value added ingredients, which Sobolta cited as a “good growth story”, particularly within LATAM and North America.
“We’re active in China with our own factories, and that’s a second pillar of growth for us – to focus more on China,” he said.
China was a strong opportunity for the CSM Collective, particularly through building better access to supply and routes to market. The company was also building a factory in the territory.
“You need to have access to distribution channels, we’re a bakery company but will look to align with, say, a tea supplier and create routes to market that way,” Sobolta explained.
