In 2024, EW Nutrition celebrates 20 years of providing bespoke solutions in animal health and nutrition. Over the past two decades, the company has dedicated their offering to improving the performance and health of livestock through innovative products that address gut health, acute gut challenges, and further tailored solutions like immunoglobulin-based supplements and advanced toxin management.
As the industry evolves, the company remains dedicated to meeting new challenges with forward-thinking technology and a focus on long-term, sustainable growth. Feedinfo sat down with Jan Vanbrabant, CEO of EW Nutrition, to discuss EW Nutrition’s spirit of R&D and future directions.
[Feedinfo] In 2024, EW Nutrition celebrates 20 years in the animal nutrition market. What do you believe has been the company’s impact so far and has EW Nutrition achieved its goals?
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[Jan Vanbrabant] EW Nutrition is part of EW Group, a family holding whose name is synonymous with top expertise in poultry, fish, and plant genetics, as well as many other fields - including animal nutrition. Our mandate was always to develop the highest level of expertise in animal health and nutrition, and to bring the best products of this expertise to the animal protein production industry. We have undoubtedly succeeded in this mission. We are proud to offer some of the best products on the market addressing a range of concerns in poultry, swine, and ruminants. |
Jan Vanbrabant, CEO, EW Nutrition |
To support gut health, we offer Ventar D, Pretect D, and Activo, improving reliability and tackling various acute or chronic challenges. Additionally, for toxin management, Mastersorb and Solis protect against bacterial or mycotoxin threats. We are able to offer comprehensive and tailored solutions with the addition of our immunoglobulin-based Globigen, organic acids with the Acidomix line, or the newest member of our family, the xylanase Axxess XY. But our work, of course, continues. It’s a moving goalpost: whatever we have done well this year, we want to do better next year.
[Feedinfo] How do you feel that the industry has changed in the last 20 years since EW Nutrition was established?
[Jan Vanbrabant] The interesting thing is most issues in animal protein production have not changed over the past 20 years. Performance and profitability, gut health and pathogen pressure, feed quality, meat quality, digestibility, and so on – these are all issues we are still grappling with. Of course, the sheer pressure of animal headcount, climate change, and market demand has increased these challenges.
Fortunately, we now have so much more information, many decades of data and also advancements in technology. We can now address these challenges not just with AI or with data from decades of trials, but with improved or new technologies, such as our immunoglobulin technology developed in Japan. In other words, the challenges in our industry have not changed that much, but our solutions have.
[Feedinfo] You joined EW Nutrition as CEO a little over a year ago. Has anything changed in the company’s strategy since then?
[Jan Vanbrabant] We are consistent in our strategy to grow organically and through mergers and acquisitions. Coming into EW Nutrition, I was fortunate to join a company with strong foundations that were built over these 20 years. We continue to focus on feed quality, gut health and digestibility solutions. We are very fortunate to have owners who have a long-term commitment to agriculture, and this is one of the key reasons why I joined EW.
Additionally, we do have two points of focus. One is keeping a close eye on emerging and critical issues in the industry. We believe we have the best answers to the problems of today – but we want to also have the best answers to the problems of tomorrow. Our R&D teams are always ready to face the next challenge.
The other area of focus is that we are taking a closer look at services for gut health. In addition to OPGenius, our tool for on-site Eimeria OPG count, we are exploring some very interesting detection tools which we hope to bring to our customers in the next calendar year.
[Feedinfo] Where do you see EW Nutrition’s biggest strengths in the market? Can you pinpoint any areas of growth for the future?
[Jan Vanbrabant] We are a leading provider of gut health, feed quality, and digestibility solutions for poultry and livestock, but we are also experts in pet solutions, especially with our immunoglobulin technology. Until now we’ve mostly exploited this expertise in the US and Asian markets, but it is time to bring this to other areas of the world. We are also preparing to widen the reach of our phytomolecule solutions to the pet and aqua markets.
[Feedinfo] What do you hope EW Nutrition’s next 20 years will bring?
[Jan Vanbrabant] When we talked last year, I mentioned we do not want to grow for the sake of growing. We want to be very, very good at what we do. The way I see it, EW Nutrition is very well positioned to become a leading player in the feed additive space, well before another 20 years goes by. We are already a top 3 player in several categories, but we want to expand our presence wider. I believe we can definitely do this: under the EW Nutrition umbrella, we have R&D, scale-up, and production facilities and capabilities that put us in the top tier of our industry and give us an important competitive edge.
You will see and hear much more of us in the future, that’s for sure. We believe in the long-term future of animal protein, and we have owners that share that view and are willing to invest in that.
Until then, we are eager to meet our customers and partners in Hall 20, booth C24 at EuroTier. On November 13, we’ve planned an afternoon of celebrations, so we hope to see our friends and industry partners who have worked with us over the past 20 years, alongside all those who are interested in learning more about what we do.
