Boettger Food Ingredients (BFI) stands for long-time expert competence in the field of sugar diversity and is additionally expanding into the area of nuts and dried fruits. BFI is a part of the Boettger Group, a mid-sized company conglomerate based in Berlin, whose success is founded on its solid expertise in many segments of the food industry.
By Alfons Strohmaier
Sugar has always been the central element in the history of the Boettger Group stretching back for over 110 years. It all began with sugar, when back in 1904 Hugo Boettger joined the Praust sugar factory near Gdansk in today‘s Poland. In the time that followed, he was a driving force behind the merger of the three Gdansk-based sugar factories Praust, Neuteich and Sobbowitz into a union of factories, with a majority of the holding held by the Boettger family. The sugar business continues to play an important role within the group, which is still owned by the family. In addition to sugar, the company also enjoys success in the confectionery segment with the candy manufacturer Cavendish & Harvey, in transport & logistics, and in real estate.
BFI resulted from the merger of Zucker-Vertriebs-Gesellschaft (ZVG) in Braunschweig and Berlin-based Zucker-Handels-Union (ZHU) – with the aim of optimizing the structures in the sugar and ingredients segments and realizing strong synergies. All national and international activities are managed from here under the supervision of Dr Stefan Feit, Managing Director at BFI. Along with liquid sugar and sugar syrup, the BFI portfolio also offers EU 2 white beet sugar and imported cane sugar, as well as a wealth of additional sugar specialities and sugar alternatives. The nuts and dried fruits sector has also come under greater focus recently. “We are a hybrid, with our own industrial production on the one hand and with enormous commercial trade expertise around the world on the other”, explains Dr Feit.
The liquid sugar products and special syrups come from the company’s own production, since the Boettger Group operates Spezialzucker-Raffinerie Lage GmbH & Co. Betriebs-KG, together with its partner Pfeifer & Langen, and maintains 30 % in NFZ – Norddeutsche Flüssigzucker GmbH & Co. KG. This reflects the company’s history, given that Dr Wolfgang Boettger conducted pioneering work following World War II in molasses-based liquid sugar production.
In the late 1930s, the company acquired the Victoria-Mühlenwerke, Humboldt-Mühle and Berliner Dampfmühle sugar mill operations, along with a range of warehouses in Berlin. The BFI and holding company headquarters are located today at the Victoria-Höfe commercial complex on the banks of the Spree River in Berlin.
Years later, the company relinquished its sugar refining activities, selling off its sugar mills along with other different projects and cooperative enterprises, for instance in the pharma segment. Since the 1950s, the company has consistently focused on building up the corporate group under the motto “All around sugar”, with a variety of primary priorities and engagement in nationally and internationally active commercial sugar companies. This has established a stable niche position for the Boettger Group in the highly competitive and highly concentrated sugar market, and the group continues to positively appraise its future prospects in the global competition.
“It used to be that manufacturers were bound to only one supplier. This has changed. Many companies began long ago to let go of their dependency on a single supplier and to satisfy their needs from several suppliers. We are one of those three or four alternatives”, emphasizes Dr Feit, who has been closely involved in the topic of sugar for more than 20 years. During his career, he has stood already on the side of sugar users as the MD of German Sweets. This naturally gives him great insight into the circumstances and challenges faced by small and mid-sized producers, which represent the main target group for BFI. “We supply quantities extending from 100 tonnes up to volumes in the five-figure range, and we do this for companies all over Europe. Another important factor is that with our wide-ranging portfolio, we can supply everything to customers from a single source, and this now increasingly includes high-quality premium segment nuts and dried fruits”, explains Dr Feit.
By specializing in liquid sugar and sugar syrup, augmented by individually customer-customized caramel products, caramel colouring and fondant, both liquid and dry, BFI has created a strong market position in the food and beverages industry as well as in the confectionery industry. Meanwhile, the company is also an important supplier of sugar alternatives including agave syrup, coconut blossom sugar and rice syrup.
BFI‘s experts also place special emphasis on sugar specialities. Dr Feit sees enormous development potential in this. He explains: “Only a few manufacturers are aware that beyond classic refined sugar, there is an unbelievably exciting spectrum of sugar crystals unique in taste and olfactory characteristics on the basis of cane and palm sugar. In light of the fact that consumers are continuously becoming more informed and nutrition-conscious, confectionery and baked goods producers can achieve their own incomparable taste profile in their products simply with the individual types of sugar they use, and they can promote this fact on their packaging”.
With Panela One and Three, a 100 % whole cane sugar from Columbia, Golden Caster cane sugar, fine and dark Demerara or dark Muscovado, all from Mauritius, each of the associated product samples surprises the taste buds with various flavours of discreet sweetness ranging from honey flavours, flowery vanilla tones and fruity flavours through to clear or fruity caramel notes. Coconut blossom sugar from Java entices, for instance, with a spicy malt flavour, while dark Demerara from Mauritius features a gentle hint of coffee. BFI offers each specialty in organic quality.
Thanks to its soundly managed corporate strategy, the Boettger Group as well as BFI are in a “healthy position that we want to further expand in the future”, stresses Dr Feit. This equally applies for the nuts and dried fruits segment, together with the portfolio‘s superfoods and add-ons such as Goji berries and Chia seeds. BFI imports large quantities of such wares, enabling the company to also service smaller producers. “We want to continue our strong growth in this segment, if need be through acquisitions”, says the manager with an optimistic eye on the future.
Over its history, the company‘s strategy has been characterized in every business field by concentrated knowledge specific to the individual industry and a specialization in niches, thereby ensuring its economic success. According to the company, this is set to continue. Each of the subsidiaries and enterprises contributes and profits from the internal transfer of know-how, the bundling of administrative energies and the systematic management in the group. In addition, medical cannabis has also recently become part of the field of Boettger Group‘s activity.
