Solina: A Recipe for Lasting Value

At Solina, sustainability is not a report you file. It is how the business competes and grows.

Founded in France in 1988, Solina was built on a deceptively simple idea: that great food should be good in every sense — good to eat, good for people, and good for the planet. Today the company helps food professionals turn culinary ideas into products that work at scale. From seasoning and coating solutions to sauce and vegetable solutions, Solina teams support customers in over 75 markets from more than 50 production sites across 21 countries. Its work sits quietly behind millions of everyday meals.

Astorg became Solina’s majority shareholder in June 2021, acquiring the business from Ardian, with the management team reinvesting alongside us — a clear sign of shared conviction in the road ahead. The appeal was straightforward: a category leader in resilient markets, an exceptional management team, and a business in which sustainability already created real value. As a UN PRI signatory since 2011, Astorg has long held that responsible business and strong performance reinforce one another.

Growth, built on conviction

The years since have borne it out. Solina has roughly doubled in scale — from around 2,250 employees and 27 sites at acquisition to more than 4,000 people today — while extending well beyond Europe. A series of acquisitions, particularly across North America (among them Asenzya, Saratoga Food Specialties and, most recently, Sokol), has turned a European champion into a truly global partner to the food industry, all while deepening the R&D and culinary expertise that sets Solina apart. Throughout, Astorg has played the part of a patient, hands-on partner — helping to structure and accelerate an agenda that was already in the company’s DNA.

It comes down to people

None of this would be possible without Solina’s people. The founding entrepreneurial spirit — rooted in founder and chairman Eric Terré’s original vision and carried forward under CEO Anthony Francheterre — has stayed intact even as the group has welcomed new companies and cultures into the fold, sustained by continuity of leadership and management’s own stake in the business. A strong culture of health, safety, diversity and purpose has, in turn, made Solina a magnet for talent at a time when people increasingly want their work to mean something

From sourcing to the finished recipe

That culture comes through in the colleagues who tell Solina’s story on screen — three perspectives on a single conviction

Sibylle Lamy - SUSTAINABILITY

How responsibility runs through every stage of the value chain — from sourcing to the finished recipe — and what Solina’s 2030 ambition means in practice.

Brecht d’Hondt - PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Recipes reformulated for better nutrition and packaging redesigned for recyclability — all without trading away taste, quality or affordability.

Sophie Mercier - PEOPLE & CULTURE

The human foundation beneath it all: nurturing talent, advancing diversity, and building the kind of workplace a new generation actively wants to join.

Three perspectives, one point: at Solina, sustainability is something people live, not a report they file.

A recipe for lasting value

Our case study film captures what Solina is achieving, and the journey of a family-rooted French business that, in partnership with Astorg, has become a global leader, and continues to prove a simple thesis: when sustainability sits at the heart of strategy, it is, ultimately, a recipe for lasting value

Good to eat. Good for people. Good for the planet.

And, it turns out, good business.

*Headcount and site figures are approximate and reflect the business at acquisition (June 2021) and today; subject to ongoing change. Astorg has been a signatory of the U N Principles for Responsible Investment since 2011.