BIOSWITCH releases preliminary results of the survey on brand owners’ perceptions when switching to bio-based

At BIOSWITCH, we want to shape solutions to mitigate brand owners’ perceived risks, but first we needed to understand them! Thus, we carried out a survey on brand owners’ risks, needs and incentives when switching to bio-based, to learn:

• Which are the main barriers preventing companies from switching to bio-based?
• What are the motivating factors for brand owners to take bio-based approaches?
• What do they need in their transition journey?

The study surveyed 60 brand owners across 10 countries, mostly representing the food sector. Of them, 72% already include some bio-based ingredients in their products, and 85% would consider including bio-based materials within those who do not.

Regarding packaging, while only 29% of companies currently use biobased packaging, a whopping 95% would consider doing it in the future.

The main barriers the brand owners identified for a transition from fossil-based to bio-based are costs (58%), uncertainty of functional performance (54%) and incompatibility with existing processes (32%). Similarly, poor functionality (61%) and incompatibility with existing processes (52%) are seen as the biggest risks.

So, what do brand owners consider would help them in switching to biobased? Competitive prices (83%) and compatibility with existing processes and the same functional performance (65%) are the main boosters. Brands are motivated by sustainability targets and customer demand, as well as the desire to show their capacity to innovate. Three fourths of the interviewed brand owners envisage strong or moderate growth of customer demand for biobased products over the next five years, with the main drivers being customer preference and awareness.

You can download the PPT with the preliminary results from our documents section, and stay tuned because we will upload the full report in the coming weeks!