FlavourCraft, situated in the growing town of Hillcrest, was established in 1996 and it produces flavourings and food formulations for the savoury and confectionery markets. ’Built on the strength of our noses’ quips CEO Ryan Ponquette, ‘the flavour house utilises 800 different raw materials to design its flavours.’
After training their noses, Ponquette and his partner Neil Wiltshire, a chemical engineer, started to look at the process of making flavours from a scientific point of view.
To manage the range of tasks and processes that these procedures require, FlavourCraft implemented an online supply chain management system called In Synch. This interactive system links everybody from the shop floor to the boardroom, prompting them for input where required and streamlining business processes.
This highly effective management of people and processes not only helps FlavourCraft to meet the requirements of stringent SABS ISO auditing processes, it has also resulted in outstanding business growth. Since founding, turnover has grown almost a hundredfold, customers have increased from 20 to 250, and the income per employee has increased almost tenfold.
Ponquette maintains that despite having state-of-the-art laboratories and computer equipment, what really makes FlavourCraft a success is its team of 25 chemists and food scientists. ‘A machine may be off the mark,’ he explains.
Wiltshire was working with fertilisers and explosives before he started at FlavourCraft. He always had an interest in herbs and spices and the ‘botany’ of food, he says. ‘Nothing is conventional at FlavouCraft and everything we do always ends up different.’
‘We are painting pictures using aroma chemicals,’ he went on. ‘Since joining FlavourCraft he has learned to identify many different smells down to their chemical levels just by using his nose.
Hanging on the walls of the FlavourCraft offices is the African artwork Ponquette has sourced from various South African artists. ‘What does this have to do with flavour?’ asks Ponquette. ‘The cameos are of the places we have been too and of the people we have met. It’s not only a reminder of the art behind what we do, but also it’s about the consumer.’
Ponquette, SAAFoST president elect, feels that although food is such an integral part of everyone’s existence, the ‘masters’ behind the scene are very often elusive, their jobs being so technical and scientific.
The food industry is more than a mechanism feeding the masses; it consists of academics, chemists and scientists who have studied many years to get to where they are to work on the complex ingredients that make up what we simply shove down our throats, says Ponquette.
Only 14 years after being established, FlavourCraft was nominated in 2010 as a finalist for President’s award and has grown to be the biggest savoury flavour company in South Africa.
‘The essence of FlavourCraft is the art and the science of taste,’ he concludes.‘Drawing attention to the art of what you do, your craft, you can realise a passion for your job.’
