Company also signs partnership agreement with Stafilies
Unibio has appointed David Henstrom as its new CEO. He is expected to join the company in June. The appointment comes after the decision of Henrik Busch-Larsen, CEO and member of the founding family, to step down from his role to pursue other business interests. Busch-Larsen will continue to serve as a board member of the company and remains one of its major shareholders.
Henstrom joins from Cargill, where he has worked since 1994 across a range of business units, most recently as vice president and managing director for growth ventures and commercial excellence at the Salt Group. His long track record across Cargill’s food and nutrition businesses includes leading the formation of a joint venture with PURIS Proteins, which enabled Cargill’s entry into the pea protein business.
“Henrik has been the driving force behind Unibio for more than a decade, and we owe him an immense debt of gratitude; we simply would not be here without him. I am delighted that Henrik will continue to stay involved with the company,” said Jan Boeg Hansen, chair of the board. “I would also like to welcome David to the team. He has an exemplary track record of driving highly specialized food and nutrition businesses across Cargill’s portfolio worldwide, and his skills and experience will be invaluable as we continue the global rollout of mass production of Uniprotein, our leading sustainable protein.”
“We have arrived at a natural point in Unibio’s development where a range of different skills are needed to take the company to the next stage,” Busch-Larsen said. “David has an incredible track record that complements Unibio’s future development areas very well and I am excited to see where he will take Unibio in the coming years.”
“Unibio is uniquely positioned, with a sustainable protein that can be produced at an industrial scale, adding value to feed markets worldwide,” Henstrom said. “They have license or production agreements with partners in three continents. I look forward to helping accelerate their expansion in the years ahead.”
Partnership agreement with Stafilies
Unibio also recently signed a partnership agreement with Stafilies, the holding company of Protelux, to further deepen their collaboration in developing the industrial-scale production of its high-quality Uniprotein at Protelux.
Protelux is the first industrial plant that has brought Unibio’s patented U-Loop continuous-flow fermentation process into industrial-scale production. Protelux is located in Ivangorod, Russia, close to the border with Estonia, an EU member state. This location has access to cost-effective natural gas, as well proximity to the European Union and the Baltic Sea for shipping.
Protelux has an installed capacity of 6,000 tons of Uniprotein per year, which can be scaled up to 20,000 tons. Under the agreement, Stafilies, the Protelux parent company, will buy a shareholding in Unibio in exchange for cash and intellectual property. The intellectual property includes all of the knowledge gained over the past five years of how to install and operate industrial-scale production of Uniprotein. Unibio has also secured an option to acquire a stake in Protelux in the future.
