Photo: Anette Persson

Bayn Solutions continues the journey of success

Bayn Solutions celebrates ten years. In the anniversary interview, Patrik Edström, CEO, talks about the plans, thoughts and ideas that will bring Bayn further into the future. Read on.

25 November 2019 •

When Patrik Edström took over as CEO of Bayn Solutions in 2018, he came in with inter­na­tion­al expe­ri­ence from both large and small com­pa­nies, and with a sol­id pro­duc­tion and pro­cess­ing experience.

– It was excit­ing to take over such an inter­est­ing organ­i­sa­tion as Bayn. We are also very grate­ful for all the sup­port that the main own­er Första Entreprenörsfonden has giv­en the com­pa­ny since 2011, says Patrik Edström.

He explains that Första Entreprenörsfonden invests in Swedish entre­pre­neur­ial com­pa­nies with­in sus­tain­tech, that is, com­pa­nies that devel­op tech­ni­cal solu­tions focus­ing on sus­tain­abil­i­ty and qual­i­ty of life, and who are on an inter­na­tion­al growth jour­ney. Bayn ful­filled all the cri­te­ria and there­fore Första Entreprenörsfonden entered as a lead investor in Bayn.

Sugar reduction in the lifestyle segment

Patrik Edström’s con­tacts with, and knowl­edge of, the food indus­try are valu­able for Bayn’s growth. He him­self has sold sug­ar to con­fec­tionery, jam and ice cream com­pa­nies and has an under­stand­ing of the chal­lenges cus­tomers face when sug­ar is to be replaced with sweet­en­ers. Bayn’s cus­tomers are food and bev­er­age com­pa­nies that pro­duce con­sumer prod­ucts in the lifestyle seg­ment. They are look­ing for solu­tions that replace sug­ar with­out com­pro­mis­ing on taste and texture.

Lucy Dahlgren found­ed Bayn in 2009, and the com­pa­ny offered sweet­en­ers of nat­ur­al ori­gin ear­ly on. Bayn’s offer to the food and bev­er­age indus­try has been fur­ther devel­oped since then.

– The dif­fer­ence between 2009, when Bayn Solutions was found­ed, and the com­pa­ny I lead today is that our pro­duc­tion not only rests on ste­via, but also on oth­er sweet­en­ers of nat­ur­al ori­gin. Our prod­uct Eureba replaces sug­ar with­out prob­lems, he says.

The raw materials are a strong success factor

Bayn devel­ops sweet­ened fibres that are care­ful­ly select­ed fibres sweet­ened with sweet­en­ers of nat­ur­al ori­gin from the ste­via plant. Often, sug­ar alco­hol is also includ­ed to get the right taste and tex­ture. The choice of raw mate­ri­als is a strong suc­cess fac­tor and there­fore there is no rea­son to change direc­tion in the future, says Patrik Edström. In the future, Bayn will cre­ate an even clear­er busi­ness by focus­ing on the raw mate­ri­als and their development.

– If you make prod­ucts in the lifestyle seg­ment, you as a food pro­duc­er should have a prod­uct that makes the con­sumer feel good. Then you should also be able to tell that the sweet­en­er is of nat­ur­al ori­gin, he says.

When Bayn can reach break even

Sugar reduc­tion and raw mate­ri­als of nat­ur­al ori­gin are in focus today. This is also evi­dent in Bayn’s sales and vol­umes, which are steadi­ly grow­ing. Patrik Edström’s fore­cast is that Bayn will achieve sus­tain­able growth in the near future, and break even in 2021-2022.

– The first goal is for sales to reach SEK 100 mil­lion, and I believe that Bayn can get there in 2022. If we can see that sales fig­ures are increas­ing faster than in the com­ing years – then I am sat­is­fied, he says.

Development will meet the market’s needs

Bayn, with Patrik Edström lead­ing the com­pa­ny, sharp­ens the deal to reach the goals. In the com­ing years Bayn will invest in devel­op­ing pro­duc­tion and pro­duc­tion tech­nol­o­gy. The goal of the invest­ment is a more effi­cient pro­duc­tion and to cre­ate more advanced ingre­di­ents in terms of microstruc­ture and crystallization.

– If we can incor­po­rate more qual­i­ties into our prod­uct, for exam­ple that it will liken sug­ar to its struc­ture even more, then we can meet the wish­es and needs of the mar­ket, he says.

Intensive marketing

During 2019, as Bayn cel­e­brates ten years in exis­tence, the com­pa­ny­has launched inten­sive mar­ket­ing efforts to increase the aware­ness of Bayn’s con­cept. The new web­site and the strat­e­gy behind it also cre­ate an influx of new customers.

– We will add to this effort with tech­ni­cal exper­tise and staff that fol­lows up on our leads. That is why we are look­ing for food tech­ni­cians with busi­ness acu­men who can reach out to cus­tomers, assist with knowl­edge and exper­tise and ensure that pro­duc­tion with Eureba works with­out prob­lems, says Patrik Edström.

Plans for own pilot plant

To strength­en the busi­ness there are also plans to buy tech­nol­o­gy and build a pilot plant in Gävle, where Bayn’s R&D team works. The idea is to cre­ate a scale mod­el of a pro­duc­tion facil­i­ty where the R&D team can test process and method changes already in the lab before apply­ing them on a full scale. Such a solu­tion would mean that the pro­duc­tion capac­i­ty is above lab size, but well below a full-scale pro­duc­tion operation.

– What we want to achieve is a sim­u­la­tion of real pro­duc­tion con­di­tions. This way, we can get a faster turn­around, part­ly by fine-tun­ing cus­tomers’ recipes and part­ly by devel­op­ing our own prod­ucts, he explains.

New products and new knowledge

On the draw­ing board are also ideas for semi-fin­ished prod­ucts under our own brand . The idea is to be able to offer, to for exam­ple choco­late man­u­fac­tur­ers, semi-fin­ished prod­ucts where the sug­ar has been replaced by Eureba. A sim­i­lar idea exists for fruit purees, so-called fruit preps.

– This type of semi-fin­ished prod­uct is of inter­est for bak­eries and their sup­pli­ers, as well as for the ice cream indus­try, as an exam­ple. Another promis­ing prod­uct is sprin­kles; It is a prod­uct that basi­cal­ly con­sists of noth­ing but sug­ar and it can be replaced with Eureba, says Patrik Edström.

To suc­ceed with this type of ven­ture, Bayn needs to look for a new type of expertise.

– We see a need for prod­uct con­sul­tants, who have clear tech­ni­cal knowl­edge and who know what prob­lems can arise in, for exam­ple, the bak­ery, con­fec­tionery and ice cream indus­try, says Patrik Edström.

Globally local

Bayn has moved the man­u­fac­tur­ing of Eureba to Sweden to get clos­er to the European mar­ket. In the future, Bayn wants to become even more local. The equip­ment Patrik Edström has in mind would be pos­si­ble to set up any­where in the world where Bayn would pro­duce their goods.

– Today it’s impor­tant that we all con­sid­er our car­bon foot­print. This is why we are look­ing at pos­si­bil­i­ties to have pro­duc­tion close to our cus­tomers’ mar­kets. For exam­ple, our cus­tomer Paradis-Is is inter­est­ed in deliv­er­ing a US-pro­duced prod­uct that is sweet­ened with Eureba. In a near future, we will find solu­tions to this, he says.

Gathering force

On the mar­ket­ing side, Bayn is going for a new approach. Patrik Edström says that the organ­i­sa­tion will work with sig­nif­i­cant­ly more cam­paigns. This means that their own break­throughs in the food indus­try will spread to oth­er equal­ly rel­e­vant indus­tries faster.

– The cam­paign idea is as yet on the draw­ing board. But it aims to roll out one mar­ket seg­ment after anoth­er, gath­er­ing force where it is suc­cess­ful, map­ping indus­tries both in Sweden and glob­al­ly, and tak­ing a broad and thor­ough approach to increase sales, he says.

Team is everything

Patrik Edström has a ded­i­cat­ed team of wide­ly diverse skills. And a strong Board of Directors, where the Chairman of the Board, Peter Werme of Första Entreprenörsfonden, is an expe­ri­enced door open­er for net­works and contacts.

– We are strong and we have a good finan­cial sit­u­a­tion. I look to the future with con­fi­dence, says Patrik Edström.

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