Bayn Solutions continues the journey of success

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.