History and values
L
ucta stands out in a business climate
A FRAGRANT where medium-sized companies are not
renowned for devoting so much of their
resources to building up a strong interna-
tional presence. As it turns out, international
expansion has been a reality for the Spanish
GLOBAL ENDEAVOUR manufacturer since it first opened shop in
Colombia and subsequently in the US some
35 years ago – at a time when this move was
unheard of for the mostly parochial Spanish
business community.
“There is no question that we have
Already present in countries as diverse as the USA, China, Brazil, Mexico and Poland, the Barcelona- achieved our objective of being a truly inter-
national group,” declares managing director
based Lucta is backed up by a history spanning over 50 years and a committed and motivated work- Carlos Prada. “Our next challenge is to
force. On the brink of becoming a global player to be reckoned with in its three core segments of become global, something altogether dif-
fragrances, flavours and feed additives, Lucta has made a deliberate choice to concentrate on a ferent. The contrast between the two is
much more than word play. We want to
limited product offering to beat heavy-hitting international competitors. Oscar Del Santo reports. stand for quality and value everywhere by
integrating and standardising our offering
and being present in countries that give us
access to key markets.”
This, of course, is easier said than done.
“We are facing tough competition from
larger-sized household names,” he admits,
“but we are far from deterred. We are bet-
ting on specialisation coupled with a ‘going
global’ approach to see us through.” And
this does not sound like a delusion of
grandeur when one takes into account the
origins of this ‘fragrant’ manufacturer.
170 Industry Europe
Battling against the odds has never been alien
to Lucta. “Our company grew in the dim years
of post-civil war Spain where opportunities were
as limited as supplies. Yet by 1955 Lucta had
moved to its 3000m2 plant in Barcelona’s
Numancia Street. Production remained
there until in 1975 we were rehoused to our
present location in Montornés del Valles –
just outside Barcelona – where we have a
60,000m2 manufacturing site and substan-
tial office space at our disposal. That we
were able to grow and spread out to other
countries in that isolationist period of our
history is quite remarkable,” says Mr Prada.
Today, Lucta is a melting pot of cultures
and languages brought together by a
number of core values that are very dear to
the company’s owners and managers.
“We have strived to make Lucta a place
where people want to stay, where they feel at
home as part of a community that stretches
out far beyond Spain,” he continues. “It is
very fashionable these days to claim that
people are your greatest resource: that has
been our business philosophy all along, as it
is proven beyond doubt by the fact that there
are a surprisingly large number of workers
staying here for a significant proportion of
their working lives. Like many others I have
been at Lucta for 20-odd years.”
Furthermore, there is also a commitment
to openness and social responsibility. “We
are members of Responsible Care, the
chemical industry’s association for the
encouragement of sustainable development
and the improvement of our health, safety
and environmental performance record at
national and global level. At a time when so
many doubts are being raised about the
chemical industry’s environmental impact,
our belonging to an organisation such as
Responsible Care exemplifies the business
ethic under which we want to operate.”
Flavour and fragrance
Lucta’s product offering focuses on the three
broad segments of flavour, fragrances and feed
additives. Lucta flavours can be found in
leading bakery, confectionery, dairy or meat
products without forgetting the ever-growing
snack foods niche; fragrances are ubiquitous in
the household chemical sector in the likes of air
fresheners, acid gels, multipurpose cleaners,
dishwashing liquids or laundry detergents; feed
additives seek to help the palatability of animal
chows with tailor-made solutions that are of
great help for stockbreeders and farmers.
Benefiting from fairly benign market con-
ditions, the company posted a positive set
of results in 2005. Net income rose to just
above the €100 million mark with €102 mil-
Industry Europe 171
 LUCTA ■ FOOD & DRINK

almost impenetrable for foreign producers. It
was not until 2004 – when the team was
substantially reinforced by the enlisting of
two vice presidents in charge of the fra-
grances and feed additives divisions, and
capacity was increased in the latter with a
new solids mixer – that Lucta began to reap
the harvest of its hard work in America.
Sales have been growing ever since at a rate
of 10 per cent per annum.
“We have to deploy an array of rather dif-
ferent strategies in the markets in which we
operate,” admits Mr Prada. “In Europe and
the US we are facing consolidated markets
that often prove themselves impervious to
newcomers. One of the very few avenues
left for growth is taking business from your
competitors by offering a better price and a
better service. That is why people are so
important and why we want to have a work-
force that exudes customer friendliness.”
In Central and South America, where
Lucta is very active and very profitable,
prospects are encouraging. Lucta
Mexicana has been growing at a sustained
rate of 10 per cent over the past few years,
with the flavours division surging up to 20
per cent. Exports to countries in the
Andean area fuelled sales and boosted
Lucta Grandcolombiana’s performance
to a staggering 50 per cent increase in
turnover last year. Lucta Brazil concentrate
on flavours for animal feeds and has a 60
per cent market share in the niche of
flavours for suckling piglets’ feed.
A winning strategy
“We may not be a major player in the world
market by sales volume,” concludes Mr Prada,
“but we are certainly determined to make an
impact and be present in the world market with
products that are second to none in quality.
When it comes to customer service, I do not
believe we can be beaten. Our specialisation
policy gives us the edge in the sense that we
can be very competitive and very knowledge-
able in certain product areas.”
And there is going to be no letdown in
Lucta’s attachment to its traditional values.
“We intend to continue investing 10 per cent
of our sales in R&D – as we have been doing
year in year out for a long time now – and
offering the best possible working atmos-
phere for our staff. Paying decent salaries
wherever we operate and having a sincere
and full appreciation of the human resource
as the greatest resource we have will continue
to be our trademark in the years to come.” ■
www.lucta.com

lion, each of the three divisions accounting
for approximately one third of this figure. By
area Europe represented 51 per cent of the
turnover, followed by Central and South
America with 26 per cent, Asia with 10 per
cent and the US the remaining three per
cent. Lucta employs just over 500 people
and all its manufacturing plants are ISO
9001 and ISO 4001 certified.
“For a company of our size,” declares Mr
Prada, “we have been faring extremely well
in the face of tough competition from the
big boys. We have put a lot of time, effort
and money into developing our presence in
booming markets like China or Poland and
the predictable payoff has been an increase
in sales that I cannot see altering unless
something goes badly wrong. Altogether
we have four manufacturing sites outside
Spain in the US, Mexico, Colombia and
China as well as offices and warehouses in
Poland and Brazil.”
Growth and development
It is never easy for a medium-sized company
with limited resources to build up a strong
presence in new markets. Yet Lucta has
managed to do precisely that with a combina-
tion of ingenuity, aggressive marketing and a
‘stepping stones’ approach that is perfectly
illustrated by the growth and current success
of its Polish branch.
In 1998 a sales agent was engaged and
only a year later a fully-fledged subsidiary
was opened with offices in Katowice, to the
south of the country. Having initially concen-
trated on feed additives, by the year 2000 the
whole range was on sale and Lucta was
already beginning to make an impact. A year
later two area managers were appointed for
the Fragrances and Flavours divisions to be
joined in 2004 by another area manager in
Feed Additives. Today, Lucta prides itself in
having attained a considerable degree of
penetration in the promising Polish market.
The year 1998 was also when Lucta’s
presence in China commenced. “I believe
we are all going to be dumbfounded at how
fast the Chinese market will develop in the
next 10 years,” points out Mr Prada. “We
wanted to establish a base from which to
cover not just the Asian giant but neigh-
bouring ASEAN countries as well. 2004
was the first year when our subsidiary in
Guangzhou began to export to ASEAN
countries.” Lucta has been equally active
in participating in relevant fairs like the
International Fair of Animal Nutrition held in
Shanghai a couple of years ago.
Carlos Prada is enthusiastic about the
company’s prospects in the region. “Against
the backdrop of a booming economy and
ever-growing consumer and industrial
demand, the importance of our Chinese ven-
ture cannot be underestimated. We are
making heavy investment efforts and find our-
selves in the process of setting up two new
divisions. We are hoping to spearhead our
Asian expansion from our Guangzhou base.”
The development of Lucta in the US pres-
ents a contrasting picture. The American
feed additives market is reputed to be one of
the most demanding in the world – with the
added caveat that it is considered to be

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