The prestigious Palsgaard estate was looking its best when the chairman of the Palsgaard Foundation, Birger Brix, welcomed HM Queen Margrethe II and HRH Prince Henrik of Denmark on to the red carpet. The visit saw the royal couple tour application facilities in Palsgaard's lipid, bakery and dairy departments.

Centuries of History
The Palsgaard estate, spanning 1,104 hectares on the eastern coast of Denmark, is steeped in history that dates back to the 13th century: a history peppered with tradition, politicians, musical heritage and distinguished Danish families. The estate was acquired in 1908 by Danish-born Einar Viggo Schou, who invented the double cooling drum in 1907 that revolutionised the margarine industry.

By 1919, Schou founded Emulsion A/S and in 1920 he introduced and patented another world first - Palsgaard Emulsion Oil (PEO), the first industrially-made emulsifier for the food industry.

When Schou died in 1925 his son, Herbert, took over Palsgaard. Herbert Schou's sensitivity and foresight saw him establish the Palsgaard Foundation in 1941, a pension and profit-sharing body for Palsgaard employees.
The Schou foundation was established in 1957, when Paslgaard companies changed from private limited companies to foundation ownership.
Palsgaard A/S Director, Jakob Thoisen, outlined the foundation's original statute, which includes maintaining Palsgaard as a good employer; to preserve and develop the company's cultural values; to maintain independent research values; and to continue the profit-share scheme for employees.
"The essence of Palsgaard's drive and success stems from its history and its employees. It's the spirit which is significant and obvious to clients and visitors to Palsgaard: we know this to be true from feedback and analysis," Thoisen says.

Global growth
The early 1950s saw Palsgaard expand its operation to South Africa, France and Switzerland.
In 1948, Emulsion Holland BV was established. Today, Emulsion Holland manufactures polyglycerol polyricinoleate, an emulsifier, for the chocolate and margarine industry from a factory built in 2004.
Palsgaard moved into Greece in 1968 and Portugal in 1971 with the establishment of Credin Hellas Ltd and Credin Portugal Ltda. Emulzint Ltda was founded in Brazil in co-operation with Zeelandia in 1976.
In 1985 the Credin and emulsion companies merged into Palsgaard A/S. Today, Palsgaard has companies in Germany, Poland, Mexico, South Africa, Argentina, France, Brazil, Russia, Singapore, Ukraine, China and most recently, the USA. Palsgaard's emulsifiers are also distributed to many other countries via agents.
Palsgaard has four joint ventures and 12 subsidiaries worldwide; four of them established in just four years. "We have invested €50 million in new production facilities in Juelsminde, Denmark in the last three to four years," Thoisen said. "We have new pilot plants in Mexico within the bakery, chocolate, dairy, ice-cream and lipids sectors. And in Singapore within the bakery, dairy and ice cream sectors."
The Asia-Pacific region is a fast-growing platform for Palsgaard, who established production facilities in Shanghai, China earlier this year. "The plant (in China) began production in June, in the bakery and dairy sectors," Thoisen told Biscuit World.

Nexus A/S was set up by Schou in 1949 and today plays a prominent position in the Palsgaard family tree. Schou's talent in research and development was remarkable; before his death, he took out no less than 38 patents.
Today, one employee out of seven works in Nexus' high-tech laboratories, performing quality assurance on all products as well as applied and basic research. Since its inception, Nexus has registered over 60 patents, which the company refers to as "our DNA".

Pilots fuel success
Palsgaard's test facilities are a key to its success, customer satisfaction and growth. The company has plants in several application areas including bakery, chocolate, dairy, ice cream, fine foods and lipids.
Bakery and confectionery group business unit manager, Knud Erik Mogensen, highlighted the importance of investing in large pilot plants, some of which are the same size as actual factory plants. This helps to reassure customers that the company's ingredients, suggestions and advice is relevant and completely safe.
"Our philosophy is that our equipment should reflect our customers needs to the highest degree," Mogensen explains. "Our technologists have years of experience and clearly understand both the opportunities and problems our customers are facing. This combination of process and ingredient know-how makes us a valuable partner for our customers as we are able to solve problems quickly and more effectively".

Mogensen explains how Palsgaard's pilot plant for sponge cakes and Swiss rolls can more or less replicate real process conditions for individual clients. "The line is 32 metres long: we can process the cake batter either via a Tonelli mixer or a Mondo mixer. Pumping systems and baking conditions can be finely adjusted using in-house developed IT systems. The evaluation of products is made in temperature-controlled cabinets in order to simulate local climate conditions."
"In the confectionery area we operate a number of full lines for producing chocolate right from the basic cocoa ingredients to the finished chocolate product: refiner, conche, combined refiner/conche, tempering units and cooling lines," Mogensen explains. "This gives us an ideal base for developing new products and ingredients under realistic conditions."

Competitive edge
The field of products that promote health and wellness is growing and Mogensen acknowledges the challenges with which clients are faced in making new market-relevant products faster. Palsgaard plays a vital role in product innovation and improvement, creating specialised ingredients, sharing knowledge and offering test facilities. "The reduction of fat and calorie levels, reducing trans fat content, adding fibre or other functional ingredients - all call for significant changes in the product formulation," Mogensen notes. "Time to market is essential for our clients and by co-operating with us, the whole process of development and implementation is significantly shortened," he said.

Cost-saving solutions
Rising food costs see clients approach Palsgaard for cost-saving solutions, and Mogensen says emulsifiers can be used in several ways to achieve these solutions.
"Typically, we set up a project with the customer with clear goals and targets and work closely with them in order to succeed. For instance emulsifiers can counteract the effect of decreasing fat and protein levels in bread acting as fat and gluten replacers. Changes in flour and/or starch levels are often possible if you combine with emulsifiers which modify the gluten and amylase/amylopectin structure," Mogensen explained.
Mogensen points out that raw material price hikes can not always be absorbed or compensated for and increases in bakery market costs are probable. "A key role for us is to help our customers reduce the impact of the large increases in raw material costs that the industry has experienced and to find new creative ways of responding. Often increased quality is the answer, as customers are getting increasingly quality conscious," he said.

Palsgaard specialties
With almost 30 years experience with Palsgaard, Mogensen has seen the industrialisation of bakery production create a demand for new products. Coupled with current health trends, these are important changes that influence research and development projects.
"Aerated cake batters are a key area in the bakery sector. Products such as sponge cakes, Swiss rolls, muffins, snack cakes - where a large volume and fine texture is required. Our brand Emulpals® is a well known solution for cake mixes and Palsgaard SA 6600 is a new, patented, award-winning solution targeted
at industrial cake producers.
"Both ingredients give producers a number of valuable benefits such as instant, constant and convenient aeration with great possibilities for creating new products as well as labeling benefits. They are both non-allergenic and 100 per cent vegetable. One example of their use is creating low-fat, trans-fat free, soft cakes with a fine texture and long shelf life," Mogensen explained.
"Companies are constantly seeking new benefits. This is a very challenging area with many opportunities. Making products healthier typically implies changing several ingredients in a formulation and this is where Palsgaard can help customers optimise product characteristics and costs," he concludes.
Palsgaard's tradition of nurturing employee spirit and satisfaction instilled by Einar Viggo Schou over 100 years ago has been embellished by the Palsgaard Foundation and subsequent employees. "The spirit that was created by Mr Schou, became his constitution. We get a lot of support from the royal family, our employees and also our clients," Thoisen reflects.
Today, the company continues its expansion, researching and developing emulsifiers and stabilisers for the food industry that through their efficacity, help lower costs and increase production for clients worldwide.
You can't get much better than that.