Area served Worldwide Headquarters Nord-Pas-de-Calais Type of business Private | Website Roquette Corporate Founded 1933 | |
Industry Food
Pharmaceutical
Biochemical
Animal Nutrition Number of locations 30 Establishments (18 production sites and 12 offices) to be updated for 2012 Key people Dominique Roquette
(Associate Founder)
Germain Roquette
(Associate Founder) Products Products List
Sugars
Starch Products
Polyols (Sugar alcohols)
Derivatives of Fermentation
Proteins and Their Derivatives
Fibers and Oils
Bio-ethanol
Dietary Fibers
Fine Chemistry Products CEO Jean-Marc Gilson (1 Sep 2014–) Subsidiaries Roquette (China) Co., Ltd., Roquette Korea Ltd. | ||
Roquette is a French-based family owned company which produces more than 650 by-products from the starch extracted from corn, wheat, potatoes and peas. Founded and headquartered in Lestrem, France in 1933 by the brothers Dominique and Germain Roquette, Roquette has grow to become the leader in starch production in Europe and the number four ranked producer of starch worldwide. It is also the leader in the production of Polyols worldwide (substances derived from food compounds). Roquette employs more than 6,600 people globally and achieved a turnover of over 2,5 billion euros in 2011.
Contents
History
At the beginning of the Great Depression in 1933 grain brokers Dominique and Germain Roquette along with the aid of ICAM engineer Adam Grunewald created a potato starch plant named Roquette in Lestrem. From this point on Roquette has grown to 30 establishments. Below is a list of the firm's major development stages since its beginning.
Locations
Worldwide Roquette has 18 production sites and 12 offices located on three continents, Europe, Asia, and North America. Lestrem is the largest Roquette facility in Europe and is home to the companies main research and development center which employs more than 250 researchers. Along with the Lestrem facility Europe is home to 4 Roquette offices and 10 other production facilities (6 of which are found in France).
Since the 1980s, Roquette has been strengthening its international presence with various factories or offices in the United States, China, Korea, Japan, India, Russia and Mexico. The United States is home to 2 production sites found in Keokuk, Iowa and Gurnee, Illinois. Roquette also has 2 Chinese production plants found in Nanning, Guangxi and Lianyungang, Jiangsu. A third Asian production plant is located in Ulsan, Korea.
Products
Roquette's products fall into five major product categories; native starches and proteins, physically and chemically modified starches, hydrolyzed and isomerised products, hydrogenated products, and fermentation process derivatives and fine chemicals. Roquette is world leader in polyols (sugar alcohols) such as Lycasin.
Legal Disputes
In November 2010, Roquette Freres SA joined with Solazyme Inc., a San Francisco maker of algae-based biofuel and nutritional products, to form Solazyme Roquette Nutritionals LLC (SRN). Solazyme Inc. leaves the venture in June 2013.
In mid-2014, Roquette announces the opening of a microalgae production unit at its industrial site in Lestrem, France.
In February 2015 Roquette Freres SA loses legal battle against Solazyme Inc. with the arbitration panel awarding all SRN patents to Solazyme Inc.