Agri-food consulting

agri-food Agency Consulting firm Experts Specialists Consultancy

For more than 30 years, our specialized team has been supporting everyday the leaders of the agri-food sector in their innovation and new business projects.

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    You have a project and want to discuss it with our explorers, write us!

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    They trust us

    Logo_carre_Bayer
    Logo_carre_Coca_Cola
    Logo_carre_Danone
    Logo_carre_Firmenich
    Logo_carre_General_Mills
    Logo_carre_Limagrain
    Logo_carre_Mars
    Logo_carre_Mondelez
    Logo_carre_Nesle
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    How we support players in the agri-food industry

    Founded in 1993, Alcimed is a consulting firm specialized in innovation and new business. Spread over our 8 offices in the world (in France, Europe, Singapore and the USA), our team of 220 high-level explorers supports everyday corporate management and operational decision-makers (heads of marketing, R&D, innovation, strategy, CSR, industrial operations, etc.) in their innovation and new business projects.

    Our projects for players in the agri-food industry cover subjects as diverse as state of the art, market studies, receptivity analyses, identification of new technologies, implementation of circular economy models, valorization of co-products, definition of clean label strategies, development of new value chains, launch of innovations, identification of partners, and much more!

    And our activities are not limited to the agri-food sector. The diversity of our clients (manufacturers, ETIs, innovative start-ups, institutions, etc.), the subjects we deal with, and the geographical areas we explore, enable us to master a wide range of missions and develop recognized expertise in our specialized sectors.

    Our missions

    Our expertise

    What they say

    • Logo_carre_Nesle_Health_Science

      "I would like to thank the Alcimed team for its remarkable involvement throughout our project on infant formula, which resulted in very high value-added results. Our regular exchanges allowed us to co-build a comprehensive and concrete recommendation, presented during a very clear and interactive final presentation."

      Stéphanie FOGLIETTA

      Brand manager

    • Logo_carre_Bayer_1000

      "We have conducted various projects with Alcimed over the past few years and would like to thank the whole Alcimed team for their dedication and excellent partnership. Our projects highlighted the diversity of Alcimed skills, supporting us in market sizing, innovative methodology development and strategy consulting, to name a few."

      Cornelia KUSE

      Adjacent Markets Insights Lead, Bayer Crop Science

    • TCV_Danone_miniature_site_EN_min
      Logo_Danone

      Fabien DELAERE

      Impact Valuation Director, Healthcare Department

    • Logo_carre_Soltis

      "We have worked with Alcimed on our technology watch project, which focused on sectors that are a priori quite far from the primary activity of Soltis (joint venture between Limagrain and Lidea), but which could have a strong impact on our activities in the near future. Thanks to its expertise, its network, and its working methods, Alcimed was able to perfectly meet our expectations and gain the team's support. The resulting study was a great "eye opener” and will constitute a solid basis for reflection for the next phase of evolution and transformation of our company. All this in an enthusiastic and good mood!"

      Philippe GALL

      General Manager

    Examples of projects carried out for our clients in the agri-food sector

    • Global competitive benchmark of clean label strategies for an industrial player in the agri-food sector

      One of our clients, an industrial player in the agri-food sector, wanted to assess and develop its clean label strategy. To do this, we have supported it by benchmarking the strategies and actions of its competitors.

      First, we defined the contours of the clean label, in order to establish a common definition that can serve as a framework. Then, we studied the actions of companies from various sectors: drinks, snacking, dairy products, infant nutrition etc. and carried out this benchmark on several geographies (Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa), in order to understand what the regional specific features could be.

      We were thus able to establish recommendations for our client on product strategies (which have an impact on formulations) and communication strategies towards the public and the stakeholders of the value chain.

    • Improvement of an innovation process towards more open innovation for a leader in the agri-food industry

      We supported the R&D team of a leading player in the food industry in optimizing its innovation process to accelerate the marketing of its products.

      Our client had an innovation process very rich in ideas but internally focused and not very open to an external ecosystem. This constraint generated many limitations, including slow idea characterization and feasibility checks.

      By conducting a benchmark of existing open innovation practices in the industry and leading a series of workshops with our client’s teams, we identified and implemented actions to use external partners at various stages of the innovation process in order to accelerate the different stages and thus the marketing of product innovations.

    • Supporting an industrial player in creating their value proposition for biological control microbial treatments for seeds

      We supported a major industry player in exploring the market of seed microbial treatments. The target of the investigation was to identify pain points, needs, and expectations of players all along the value chain in order to build a differentiating value proposition.

      Through this, we were able to bring a clear picture of the biological control market in seed microbial treatments, allowing the prioritization of unsatisfied needs and functionalities that our client could respond to. We also helped in the creation of a 5-year roadmap, identifying each key step and the internal initiatives required to accomplish them.

    • Supporting an industrial player in identifying a set of solutions for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions related to enteric fermentation of cattle

      To help our client achieve its carbon neutrality goals, we conducted a review of innovations to reduce enteric fermentation in dairy cows. We explored 3 main types of sources: scientific publications, disruptive commercial solutions, and interviews with technical institutes and additive suppliers.

      During a workshop with our client, we elaborated its 15-year roadmap, integrating the set of process solutions to be implemented as well as the action steps to be carried out for each solution (partners, red flags to work on, solution ambassadors, …).

      In addition to a roadmap, key implementation partners have been identified to anticipate the first steps of operational implementation.

    • Valorization strategy of distillery co-products for a beverage player

      One of our customers, a leading alcoholic beverage company, had the ambition to reduce its carbon footprint by 50% by 2030.

      However, the valorization of distillery by-products was energy-intensive. Alcimed’s role was to assist the technical director in benchmarking the technologies used in combustion, gasification and other thermo-chemical technologies for wet co-products.

      We then evaluated the feasibility of some of these technologies for our client’s co-products. Alcimed was thus able to recommend two relevant options allowing its client to valorize its co-products by optimizing its energy consumption!

    • Strategy for the deployment of connected tools in the factories of an agri-food player

      One of our clients, a leader in the food industry, wanted to be supported in the implementation of a strategy for the deployment of connected objects, and more specifically connected tools in its factories, with a view to improving the efficiency of its industrial processes.

      To do this, Alcimed first carried out several benchmarks relating to connected tools in Industry 4.0 in order to identify the most attractive technologies for our client. Then, our team created a personalized toolbox for our client.

      This toolbox laid out an approach for the deployment of new technological solutions within factories, a proposal for the organization of stakeholders, tools for monitoring deployment, and visual management.

    • Support for the creation of an R&D pipeline of enzymes intended for “meat & milk substitutes” applications to develop new offers

      An international leader in the segment of enzymes for the agrifood industry asked our team to help develop its product offering for “plant substitutes to meat” applications (vegetable steaks, vegetable nuggets, etc.) and “plant-based milks” (soy milk, almond milk, etc.).

      The first step of our project consisted in carrying out a field investigation aimed at understanding the needs and expectations of B2C players toward ingredient manufacturers for the years to come, thus allowing us to categorize avenues for new offers for our client into 4 main themes: improve the nutritional profile, improve taste & texture, offer “clean label” products, and optimize production costs.

      We then transposed these needs into specifications for our client’s R&D team to plan the development of enzymatic solutions adapted to the challenges of current or future market players. Our team finally translated these specifications into a list of R&D projects, prioritized according to the capabilities and challenges of our client.

    • Creative workshop: preparation and animation of a “culinary” workshop to decide on R&D investments

      Our team supported the global R&D team of a leading food company in the development of its future product portfolio through a “culinary workshop”.

      To do so, we organized and moderated a two-day workshop gathering about 40 participants, with the aim of selecting the two R&D programs to be conducted in the next few years. From the collection of their “ingredients” (ideas) to the realization of their “recipe” (R&D investment program), Alcimed supported the several R&D “kitchen” teams in the construction of their future during these two days.

      Mixing numerous sub-team activities, presentation and voting sessions in plenary, and team building activities, our workshop resulted in the pre-selection of two of the developed programs to be evaluated by the company’s executive committee.

    You have a project?

      Tell us about your uncharted territory

      You have a project and want to discuss it with our explorers, write us!

      One of our explorers will contact you shortly.


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