Newly approved Global Leaders stock: Chr. Hansen is a leading global bioscience company engaged in the development of natural ingredient solutions for the food, nutritional, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries. The group’s products leverage its core competence in microbial strains, or ‘good bacteria’, enzymes and natural colours. 60% of group sales are derived from microbial cultures (the majority of which are starter cultures for cheese and fermented milk), 20% from human and animal probiotics, and 20% from natural colourings for the food and beverage industry. The group is uniquely positioned at the convergence of multiple consumer trends: the desire for natural ingredients, the removal of antibiotics and chemical preservatives in the food chain, health and wellness and the huge potential of the human microbiome. Over the past 10 years the group has delivered an admirable combination of expanding margins and organic growth of 10% p.a. Concurrently return on capital has expanded from 4% in 2010 to 16% in 2016/17 driven primarily by improved asset turnover.
