LECITEIN Limited - 2022 in Review

Like most businesses, LECITEIN also entered 2022 with a bit of uncertainty as the global economy had only started recovering from the pandemic and the food & beverage sector was far from its full capacity.

We understood that finding footing in a competitive market will be hard. But we were adamant and motivated. And, we knew if we were to make a name for ourselves, we would have to bring something different to the table.

Since lecithin supply is already a quite saturated market, finding a gap to give LECITEIN an edge was nearly impossible. Thankfully, our Director holds over a decade of industry experience and was able to pinpoint a gap.

That gap was traceability and access to old records. Traceability of raw materials, especially something as core as lecithin, has been a long-standing issue in the F&B sector. Many businesses face production delays due to weak supply chain management by their lecithin supplier and the difficulty its traceability presents. 

The vision of our Director was to cater to these pain points of the industry through LECITEIN. Hence, he invested a good chunk of his time in establishing a supply chain network that successfully kept on delivering lecithin to clients even when the political unrest was at its peak in 2022 and most of the industries were facing supply chain troubles.

A well-managed network was just one-half of the solution. The other half was LECITEIN’s exclusive Customer Portal. All of LECITEIN’s customers have access to the Customer Portal that allows them to easily track their lecithin order—from the moment the order is placed until it’s delivered—every step of the way.

The convenience of our Customer Portal doesn’t end there. All of LECITEIN’s customers have access to all of their records for the past twelve months so they don’t have to worry about finding relevant documents at the time of filing taxes. You can check out a step-by-step tutorial of how our customer portal works here.

Then came the commitment to providing and maintaining unmatched quality. Ever since we got into the business, LECITEIN has been about two things, providing a sustainable solution and unmatched quality.

We know how important lecithin is as an ingredient. It is at the very core of many FMCG products. Any difficulty in its procurement can result not only in production delays but also create a shortage of said products in the market.

Unfortunately, we witnessed this firsthand when the tensions between Russia and Ukraine grew and the latter was attacked. Ukraine is amongst the world’s largest exporters of soybean and sunflower oils; both being a source of respective plant-based lecithin. The warring countries created a global shortage of plant-based lecithin that resulted in a price hike of the ingredient as well.

However, LECITEIN had worked long and hard to build an on-site network in Ukraine that, despite the war and the tensions, kept procuring sunflower and soybean lecithin for us so that we could meet the ever-increasing demands of our customers.

Being able to procure and provide lecithin even from a war-torn country shows our dedication towards providing a sustainable solution for our clients. And, to ensure unmatched quality, LECITEIN has always standardised its lecithin from the top standardisation plants in the Netherlands and Europe.

While using European standardisation services has always been expensive for us, it has helped us fulfil our commitment to quality with our customers. As the entire standardisation process is completed in Europe, our lecithin meets all the European quality standards. We even exclusively focused on acquiring only European standard certifications because they are considered the best in the world.

Speaking of sustainability and quality, when the Russia-Ukraine war was at its peak in the past year, many popular global brands faced difficulties in procuring sunflower lecithin, including some chocolate manufacturers.

Once such a manufacturer reached out to us with their sunflower lecithin requirement. It was one of the companies we wanted to work with once we had scaled ourselves enough. For that company to reach out to us was huge. 

So, when the opportunity came knocking, we jumped at the door. It was a chance for us to prove ourselves. We had a hardworking team in our Manchester office, as well as on-ground in Ukraine. Without missing a beat, we utilised all our resources to cater to that one order. And, cater that one order we did, on time.

As we made a name for ourselves, more orders started pouring in from well-recognised global brands. Outside of Europe, we were most approached by manufacturers from the United States. The intensity of orders was so much that we eventually opened a branch office in New York City.

To cut off delivery times for our US customers and provide a better customer service experience, we also acquired a few warehouses in the country and a local team of representatives.

2022 had started with doubt and uncertainty for us. But our motivation to grow and the determination to provide the industry’s best customer experience helped us close the year on a high note. Now, LECITEIN is entering 2023 on the same note with even more motivation and determination to make itself even more customer-centric and maintain its vision of being a sustainable solution provider for the F&B sector.