Mark Lotsch: The demand for natural flavour solutions has been continuing to grow for years. Naturalness is key in product development and therefore natural flavours are in demand, and we expect this trend to remain a key driver in the industry.
Mark Lotsch: Many beverage manufacturers adapt their recipes according to the natural trend, switching from flavours (formerly labelled nature-identical) towards natural flavours. As for the most popular tastes, the demand for domestic fruit flavours is increasing, using domestic fruit from the region.
Mark Lotsch: Cocktail flavours are becoming more and more popular for beverages, such as caipirinha variants or a flavour option inspired by this summer’s European trend drink, Hugo: elderflower and mint.
Having acquired the AM Todd Group, a leading global supplier of natural mint flavourings and other mint ingredients, Wild has expanded its competence in the development of mint products and is in a very good position to offer high-quality, great-tasting cocktail flavour combinations with mint.
Mint flavouring is a hot topic in many categories, ranging from carbonated soft drinks and cloudy beer mix drinks to tea beverages and still drinks.
Besides cocktail flavours and mint, bitter flavours are on-trend as well. At Wild, we have developed diverse product options with great-tasting bitter ingredients. For instance, the ingredients can be used in adult soft drinks. With different tart and bitter varieties, we provide a complete new range of taste options to manufacturers.
Another trend is towards spicy flavours such as ginger and chilli, which are included in the Wild portfolio. We also combine them with fruit flavours that harmonise with the spicy taste profile. For instance, manufacturers can use them to create new, exciting energy drink concepts or innovative beer-mix drinks.
Mark Lotsch: Wild is a global player with locations, production sites and laboratories all over the world. Hence, we are globally active with our flavour business. The challenge (and our knowhow) is to serve the local taste preferences in different regions of the world.
The growing soft drinks markets outside of Europe offer great and exciting opportunities, which need to be served with the best taste solutions that local consumers prefer.
According to Canadean forecasts for 2013, India is number one among the growing soft drinks markets with a growth rate of 17.9%, followed by other Asian markets with 9.7% and Southeast Asia with 9.2%.
The Middle Eastern and African market is also increasing with a rate of 5.6%. Looking at Latin America, Brazil is experiencing the strongest growth here with 3.6%. On a global scale, the soft drinks market is expected to grow by 4.4%, again according to Canadean forecasts 2013. At Wild, we are very well positioned to help our customers meet this growing demand.
Our innovational strength at Wild is based on the transfer of knowledge and knowhow between our locations all around the world, on the exchange of market expertise and consumer trends.
Thanks to our recent equity share in Amazon Flavors, a leading manufacturer of natural flavours, extracts, emulsions and compounds, we are further expanding our network. In the future, we will integrate even more strongly the knowledge of the South American market into our trend monitoring, research and product development.
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