A few words from our CEO

At Sveriges Stärkelseproducenter, we work with our Lyckeby, Solam, Culinar, and Kockens brands in a global market. We come from nature, with our roots in potato cultivation and many agricultural products as raw materials.

So for us it’s essential to minimize our impact on the Earth’s resources and to always act with great respect for humans, animals, and nature.

Sustainability is a self-evident aspect of our business and our processes. We work with sustainability every day, and it guides our choices both in our current ways of working and when we choose future developments and priorities.

We have identified four key focus areas for sustainability within our business: a value-adding workplace, sustainable cultivation, resource-efficient operations, and the products of the future. The choice of these areas has been anchored in Agenda 2030 and is based on the biggest potentials for impact and improvement in our business.

During the past financial year, we have made major improvements within our focus areas, and I’d like to share a few selected highlights.

Together with our growers, we’re continuing to reduce the use of plant protection products, in line with the EU’s Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategies.

Through long-term investments, we have significantly reduced our energy use. In the last year we have achieved a reduction well in excess of our target. Reducing our total energy need is extremely relevant right now, and we will be revising our targets and taking further action on this important issue.

We are also increasing our production and speed of innovation in relation to our long-term investments and collaborations within the green protein transition and
E number-free starch products. We can see this in real world figures, and not least in the number of newly started projects with customers and collaboration partners.

It’s always easy and pleasant to talk about the things that have gone right, but it’s also essential to be aware of the areas where we haven’t achieved our targets. And here we will regroup and prioritize additional measures. Although it’s no justification, it’s clear that the areas where we fell short have clear connections to the COVID pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine. This shows how vulnerable both society and our company are, and the importance of a rapid response.

Our sick leave figures are still at a higher level than before the pandemic, which we need to analyze and address.

We are proud that our carbon footprint remains
unchanged from last year, despite increased production and restricted access to bio-oil. We are still optimistic that we will reach our goal for 2025.

As a recently appointed Group CEO, it is my ambition to work with all of our employees, owners, customers, and collaboration partners to continue developing our sustainability process. Personally, I’m convinced that we must accelerate this process with regard to our environment and nature, for us as humans, and not least from an economic perspective.

I hope you will find our sustainability report interesting and that we have the opportunity to answer any questions you may have about the content.

Hans Holmstedt

Group CEO