Suannutra’s new CEO unveils strategies to boost nutraceutical division internationally

29 Jun 2023 --- Pharmaceutical ingredient producer Suanfarma has appointed Anthony Weston as CEO at Suannutra, the company’s nutraceutical division. This move underlies the company’s aim to enhance its presence in the global nutraceuticals market through strategic focus, product innovation and brand development. 

Suannutra will continue as a customer-focused business, developing new products and investing in additional manufacturing, technical and R&D capabilities. 

Nutrition Insight sits down with the newly appointed CEO to discuss his vision and strategic plans for the company. 

Can you elaborate on why you joined as Suannutra’s new CEO?
Weston: When I was approached about the role and the project, I quickly realized that it was exactly what I was interested in regarding building and evolving an organization from a solid foundation. 

Developing it organically through business and product development and commercial excellence is a strategic priority supported by the opportunities to enhance our product, technology and global position with M&A activity. Of course, this has to be done in collaboration and partnership with our customers to meet and exceed their expectations. 

Suannutra’s vision is to be a global leader in ingredients for health and wellness supported by strong scientific validation.Underpinning all of this is the business’s culture, values and talent, which was a major attraction to me. I am values-driven and believe integrity and principles are essential to successful leadership and management and I see those values, principles and integrity within Suannutra. 

Finally, the values, drive and support Archimed [majority stakeholder of Suanfarma] indicated were key to my decision to join Suannutra.

What is your strategic vision for the company?
Weston: The vision is to be a globally present, leading provider of ingredients for health and wellness supported by strong scientific and technical validation. Having a scientific background and foundation’s of great value to a business. 

We need to be innovative in our new product development, which will be enhanced significantly, and how we collaborate and partner with our customers and stakeholders, including suppliers, to build a sustainable strategic framework to take us forward. 

Being customer focused is critical and we must organize the business accordingly to achieve this. All different functions in the company have a part to play, including the commercial team, manufacturing, quality and finance. We must reengineer the organization to consider the customer in much more detail and focus. 

I don’t believe in setting a rigorous corporate control strategy. It has to be a framework where people can be creative, where they can have individual and team responsibilities and ownership and also one where they can act as entrepreneurs.

How will you enhance Suannutra’s presence in the global nutraceuticals market? 
Weston: We currently have an excellent regional setup in Europe, Asia and the US and this provides a strong platform for growth, but they’re quite individual. Each region has its own culture to build on to have a dynamic team as we advance. 

While each region has its characteristics, the common themes of the strategic framework will apply to all, and we must look to become more globally coordinated in our product offering and exploit any overlap in our regional activities to achieve our full global potential.

There’s a massive appetite in Asia for innovative products, from beauty-from-within to health and wellness products. That’s something that we need to tap into more.

Suanfarma CEO Francisco Fernandez and Suannutra CEO Anthony Weston (Image credit: Suannutra).For the US and Europe, we need to work through the best approach in the market. We certainly have a strong business in Europe and our functional ingredients; we need to see how to enhance that and take it forward.

What will you focus on first?
Weston: We must always remain customer-focused, which I see as a priority alongside the team and talent development. Understanding the organization and market dynamics to inform the strategy is essential. 

At the same time, we will be outcome focused on our strategy delivery. We need good sustainable processes and procedures to deliver those outcomes so our growth is sustainable. 

The primary outcomes are to make sure that the team is happy and working in the right way, that we’re meeting opportunities that open up, that we’re exceeding the customer’s demands and meeting the expectations of our stakeholders.

That will be our priority on the business and commercial side, while on the innovation side, we will determine how we can accelerate the pipeline of projects that we have and how we can deliver more. 

How will Suannutra respond to upcoming challenges you foresee in the nutraceuticals market?
Weston: How we differentiate ourselves is critical as to what we can do to create extra value through the strategy and the team. This is where our plan will come into effect in supporting our scientifically backed innovative and branded ingredients and delivering best-in-class quality and service for our functional products. 

A continued and probably increased investment in the quality of the service and the technical support that we can offer to the customers is essential so that we provide more than just the product, that we can turn orders around very quickly, that we can provide solutions to the challenges that our customers face. 

Weston sees innovation and additional investment in innovation as key growth drivers.Consumer and business expectations of services increase every year. We must ensure our business is engineered to focus on the customer and their expectations. We have to be flexible in that approach, and I see the challenges and opportunities in maintaining and enhancing our quality service and technical development.

What can we expect from Suannutra in terms of science-backed products and innovations?
Weston: It is early days, but innovation and additional investment in innovation will be key growth drivers. 

The therapeutic areas we focus on for health and wellness are under review, and we would look to diversify and extend our portfolios within the categories we currently operate in but also look at new categories. 

In the next few months, we will develop our innovation strategy and the areas we want to focus on. One thing that has been impressive to me since I joined is the capabilities, knowledge and strength of the R&D team. How we harness that is key to delivering on the strategy. 

The innovation strategy will be related to in-house developed products and collaborations with others, which are of great interest to me. In my career, I have seen how these have boosted performance in conjunction with in-house innovation.

Inspiration comes from taking note of what’s going on in society, industry and the market and aligning our business with that. 

By Jolanda van Hal