Read the Conversation
EF: What are the current priorities on your agenda, and what can we expect from Uriach in 2024?
OS: 2024 is a big year for us as we complete our footprint in Europe´s most important countries. We recently acquired a company in France, which is currently in the middle of the European antitrust release processes, and in three months, we will take control of the company. This step will complete our European footprint, covering Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and the neighboring countries close to these. We are in ten countries, and our immediate priority is integrating the new company in order to complete the puzzle. We have been growing fast; it is our ninth acquisition in the last nine years, so we must dedicate time to consolidate the organization, which is a priority for 2024.
We are also reinforcing our work in innovation, one of our business pillars. In 2023, we looked at disruptive innovation, which will continue through 2024 when we split core innovation from disruptive innovation. Uriach is pushing forward in this new area, which is extremely interesting and will differentiate us from other companies.
Portfolio brands are another of our priorities. We will work on all things relating to innovation, building European priority brands already launched in several countries and complementing them with many strong local brands. We will continue accelerating our very clear and defined vision, not forgetting that this year, for the first time, we will have private equity entering the company as a minority stake, a transformational move that we must adapt to.
EF: Uriach´s commitment to the natural segment contrasts with the healthcare industry’s push towards synthetic medicine, gene and cell therapies, etc. What makes Uriach so committed to the natural segment?
OS: In 2024, we will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Aquilea, one of our main brands. It all began in Spain fifty years ago when natural products were an untapped field, and very few people knew about them. Twenty-five years ago, we acquired a company in Spain in the natural segment, which today has become a brand, something nobody else was doing at the time. We learned as we went. Over ten years ago, we anticipated that sustainability and user trends would go towards natural products in a way that could affect our business. Today, it would be an obvious decision as most people prefer natural products to chemicals when considering their health, but it wasn’t so obvious then. The natural segment was quite a fragmented business in Europe, with no reference company. Still, it was an area where we had significant experience and believed we could be leaders on the continent. We saw a good opportunity in the market and felt well-equipped to face the challenge of becoming leaders in this segment over the coming years. This belief was the birth of our accelerated organic and inorganic growth, making us a reference company in Europe today.
EF: As you continue to expand, how does Spain remain important to Uriach?
OS: We are already leaders and a company of reference in Spain, but the country remains crucial due to its potential. The food supplement consumption per person in the United States is about three times that in Europe, and Spain, and the level of expenditure is in the lower range than in Europe. This creates much room for growth. New consumers want to improve their eating habits, and eventually, they are led to the health segment and start consuming natural products. Many conditions, not precisely illnesses, can be prevented or treated with natural products, with no secondary effects. Brands such as Aquilea of Fisiocrem are absolute leaders in their segment, and their accelerated growth will continue due to several reasons:
- The strength of our channel is having many portfolios in many countries; we can include the best new products to launch in Spain, giving us the capacity to continue growing locally.
- There is also inorganic potential; we have extended our footprint, reaching many countries, and are now in a phase where we need to consolidate within these locations.
- In Spain, we are very open to new possibilities, such as acquiring brands or companies that could complement our business, helping us grow. Spain remains a crucial factor because we have fifty to eighty-year-old, incredibly profitable brands in every Spanish household. Spain is a vital contributor to the global brand.
EF: As you grow and expand inorganically, what do you look for in each new acquisition, and how do you integrate the latest brands and companies into your portfolio?
OS: We always look for a strong company in the country we want to enter. We don’t want to be a drop in the ocean, so we look for an important company in our niche business. We look for natural consumer health-oriented companies that have a unique angle. We don’t try to replicate what we have in Spain but instead look for a certain portfolio, category, or angle that complements what we already have in other countries and will help organic growth within the organization.
For example, we bought a medically focused, specialized company in sophisticated food supplements in Italy with proprietary clinical evidence. In this case, the commercialization was through doctors, whereas in other countries, we go directly to the consumer. We used this new model to expand our portfolio by combining it with other products and launching it through doctor’s visits in other countries.
Certain aspects of the business are a given, such as finance, but we are also very involved in creating a cultural path within the company. People and culture are crucial, and they are things we focus on heavily; we believe they are our main source of success and give us an advantage, so any company we hope to acquire must be fully integrated into our cultural mindset.
EF: How do you assess the current state of the market in consumer health, and how can different stakeholders be united to strengthen the industry?
OS: We are in the middle of a transformational period. If a consumer or patient were asked to define health 20 years ago, the answer would have been that when they got ill, they went to a doctor and took medicine to get cured. But today, the answer, accelerated by COVID-19, is different. Health today is more holistic; eating, sleeping, working, relaxation, and prevention are all factors to be considered, but the biggest difference nowadays is that individuals take responsibility for their health. The consensus among consumers is not necessarily to live a very long life but to live as long as possible with a high quality of life. We focus on adding life to years and not just years to life.
We are part of the ecosystem; we don’t cover it all, so we need to be prepared to cooperate with different stakeholders and be capable of moving out of the typical healthcare vision of the traditional pharmaceutical business to be part of the ecosystem, which is a necessary transformation.
EF: Uriach has reinvented itself through a constant drive for innovation. How do you maintain and sustain the continual push for innovation amongst everybody working in the company?
OS: The company is what it is because of people; people and culture make us what we are, and our culture is in our DNA. We cannot help changing, innovating, or being curious; no company exists for two hundred years unless it adapts constantly to the environment. It's not about being the strongest or the fastest, but the one that adapts quickest is the one that survives; it is the story of evolution. Change and innovation are the two constants, but it all happens because of people.
EF: Our report is called Roadmap to Sustainable Healthcare; if you had to create a roadmap to a prosperous and sustainable healthcare system in Spain, which would be your three key pillars?
OS: Sustainability is a comprehensive word and can mean many things. Regarding economics and from a financial perspective, we are trying to make the system more sustainable by creating products that are alternatives to the ones paid for by social security, which are regulated and have the taxes of the contributors behind them. We also work on the prevention side of sustainability, helping people to be healthy, avoid hospital visits, and reduce the spending of state resources. My two main pillars would be:
- Prevention: creating a preventive system helping people to live longer and healthier lives at a lower cost.
- Natural resources: from an environmental perspective, we look for natural products that are very sustainable, creating products of plant and mineral origin. Climate change issues will make our mission more challenging in the coming years, but regardless, we are committed to the ecosystem's health.
- A possible third pillar: when state resources must be used in health, they need to be used more efficiently- and with more efficiency, we could be freer to focus on quality.
EF: Is there any final message you would like to share?
OS: My final reflection is that each company must find its own path. Many correct paths exist, and in the industry, each must find its own path and be unique, which is what we have done from a business perspective at Uriach. Secondly, once the path is defined, rely on people to help you get there. Ordinary people can do extraordinary things, provided the environment and culture are right.
I base my opinion on common sense; if we know what people want, we must provide what they need to be comfortable and committed to the organization. Taking the right path, relying on people, and treating them well will make any company powerful and capable of anything.
We are a company that retains the capacity to dream and the desire to be the best company in the world. If we don’t achieve the dream, it doesn’t matter because it means we have strived for something great every day. It makes a company successful and creates a sense of identity and differentiation.
