Cluster Analysis
In the Øresund region of Denmark and Skåne the two most prominent industries are the food and the pharmaceutical industries. The region also hosts a wide range of successful and important universities and research institutes. This underlies a great knowledge base and industrial know-how related to life science, food and pharmaceuticals.
The food- and pharmaceutical industries take great interest in preventing lifestyle related diseases such as obesity and diabetes, and for that reason it is interesting to look at this area as a whole. We already have the functional food segment including food with health beneficial characteristics. Today we also see pharmaceutical companies that look more at the treatment process as a whole and food producers who take health into consideration when positioning and marketing themselves. More traditional food producers have also changed their profile during the last couple of years. One great example of a company that has changed their health profile is the Dutch giant, Unilever, who in 2005 changed their catchphrase from Meeting the everyday needs of people everywhere to Feel good, look good and get more out of life. In a global economy companies are constantly looking for new areas and ways to add extra value to their products. In this presentation we will concentrate on how companies use health to add that extra value.
Our aim with the Food and Health Cluster in Øresund is to include all food and pharmaceutical companies present in the Øresund region. We define food companies as companies that produce food, beverages or confectionary aimed for consumption. Pharmaceutical companies are defined as companies that produce a substance that is used for preventing, point out, relive or cure illness or symptom of an illness. The Øresund region is defined as the southern part of Sweden and the eastern part of Denmark. If the Øresund region is a main market to a company or if a company is located in a region close to the Øresund region, the company can be included in the Food and Health Cluster in Øresund.
When we categorize the companies in the survey we are looking at the added value the companies possess through a health keyhole. We will not take into consideration any added value that is not related to our focus. If a company has healthy products in their production range but do not state their health image the company does not have a health profile, i.e. the company is a traditional food producer in our sense. A company can also have an overall health profile with, for example, recipes for healthy food, information about exercise etc. on their homepage. In the same way a pharmaceutical company must show in their marketing an overall health profile to not be categorized as a traditional pharmaceutical company. The companies have to, in one way or another, state their health profile to be categorised as having a health profile.
In our presentation of the food and pharmaceutical industry in the Øresund region we have categorised companies in five different segments.
- Traditional Food
- Health Profile
- Functional Food
- Lifestyle Profile
- Pure Pharmaceutical
In addition interviews have been conducted with representatives from five different companies from the region – all companies associated with health in one way or another. The companies are: Danisco, Oatly, Pastalife, Pågen and Skånemejerier. All interviews have been conducted during face to face meetings. These interviews help to understand how the industry handles food and health issues and they give the reader an inside view.
We are well aware of the fact that some companies use health when marketing conventional food and even junk-food. Unfortunately it is impossible for us to carry out clinical tests on every product the companies in this survey produce, to state if they are healthy or not. This might result in some minor error, and for that we’re sorry. There are also many borderline cases and companies that have one foot in each segment in this survey, which may also result in some misplacement. If any company believes that they have been put in the wrong segment or been described in any misleading way please contact us.
The survey is completely based on public information and data, mainly collected from home pages of the companies, fact sheets etc. We don’t state that this is a 100 % complete list of all companies in the region, but it is the largest of its kind. If there is someone who believe that they should be included in this Food and Health Cluster analysis please contact us.
