The Puratos Group is an international company with its headquarters based in Belgium. Puratos is a full-fledges portfolio of innovative products and solutions for the bakery and chocolate industry. Their products and services are being sold across 100 countries and are often being produced in local stores.
Puratos partnered with UMIO to navigate their challenges around the commoditisation of their products. Together we created a unique programme based on the concept of ‘servitisation’ to help build a future-proof business model that includes higher levels of innovation and customer-driven strategies.
Challenge
Puratos’ challenge was to innovate the company’s services portfolio with the goal of creating a sustainable competitive advantage and to grow the business of their artisans.
Approach
The team immersed themselves in the life of the artisans to fully understand their ambitions, needs and challenges. Camping at the customer site, observing and doing in-depth customer interviews enabled the team to understand the dreams of the artisans, but also what kept them awake at night. Next, the core competences of Puratos, coupled with identified opportunities regarding the current services portfolio, were mapped. Innovative service concepts were developed and were optimized in cooperation with a panel of Puratos’ representatives in extensive ideation sessions. These concepts together with insights into the advancements in digital technology represented the foundation to create new service innovations, and allowed the team to create customized experiences for the artisans.
Solution
Together with the Service Science Factory Puratos implemented a servitisation strategy, to increase the impact of their services and to position themselves as a solution provider to the artisans instead of solely an ingredient supplier. This strategy builds on growing the business of the artisans in order to grow the business and profitability of Puratos.