Sprunk-Jansen making a mark in wellbeing sector
based on plants used in traditional Arabic and Mediterranean
medicine has been awarded the Frost & Sullivan Entrepreneurial
Company Award.
Sprunk-Jansen was founded last year by former Lundbeck director Erik Sprunk-Jansen and started selling its first products on the home market in January.
It now has nine products available in Denmark and the Baltic states and is in discussions with distributors in some of the major EU markets.
"The branding and marketing has been very important," Sprunk-Jansen told NutraIngredients.com, despite adding that he does not know how Frost & Sullivan found the firm. "We didn't contact them!"
However one of the firm's directors is branding expert Wally Olins, who has created the butterfly logo for the new product range.
Industry consultants Frost & Sullivan say this partnership has led to Sprunk-Jansen "building a brand guaranteeing consumers that their products work, and that they're safe".
Sprunk-Jansen agrees. "We're trying to create a brand and a new generic. Our products are not cosmetics, nor chemical medicines, but wellbeing products. We think we might be able to help people have a more pleasant life. It's not about treating serious disease."
While the products do contain some increasingly used supplement ingredients, such as olive leaf compounds, the difference is in the way they are extracted and treated, claims the company chairman.
Furthermore, each product has been thoroughly tested, using pharmaceutical standards to verify the claims cited by traditional medicine folklore, and they work, he adds.
"People come back to buy our products."
Sprunk-Jansen says the firm is on its way to achieving a target $3-4 million in sales in its first year.
The private firm, set up by a group of directors with the help of Danish private equity funds, is also looking for an increase in capital from London investors.
"We would hope to secure an exit for them on the AIM in three years time," added Sprunk-Jansen.
The Frost & Sullivan Entrepreneurial Company award is presented each year to companies demonstrating superior entrepreneurial ability with their industry.
