This subsidiary of the Lesaffre group (a world player in yeast) has established itself as a pure player in contract drying. Its strength: its expertise in drying technologies enables it to handle a wide variety of products, with outputs ranging from a few kg to several tons.
Lesaffre Ingrédients Services is “the Lesaffre group’s worldwide reference center for spray-drying”, explains Vincent Lechevalier, the company’s Sales Manager. A benchmark focused on service provision, which accounts for the bulk of our production capacity” and “for which we are deploying our investment capacity”. Both in terms of directly productive equipment (a new drying tower is commissioned every 4 or 5 years) and for the development or pilot stages.
The company, which has two production sites (Cérences in France, founded in 1936, and Legnica in Poland, since 2000), has recently set up a laboratory at the Rennes Biopôle, close to the University of Rennes: three engineers form a process & innovation team and work there on co-development, feasibility studies…
A first characterization stage is absolutely essential before moving on to the pilot stage, and LIS has four pilot towers distributed between its two sites, with capacities ranging from a few kg to several hundred Kg.
“An entry point for fine powders and microgranulates” – before mobilizing the dozen or so industrial lines with capacities ranging from 2 to 50 tonnes/campaign. “We can scale up many drying problems.”
A wide range of technologies
LIS’s strength lies in its range of drying technologies: single- and multi-effect spray drying; continuous vacuum drying for heat-sensitive and/or pasty products, granulation, encapsulation…
“Our aim is to take our service logic to its logical conclusion,” explains Vincent Lechevalier. After working on behalf of its customers to find solutions adapted to their needs as producers of natural extracts, fibers or colorants, LIS brings them broader industrial solutions.
Starting this spring, LIS will be equipped with post-drying facilities for dry powder blending. “We’re demonstrating that it’s possible to innovate in drying technologies,” concludes Vincent Lechevallier.
Key figures
270 Employees
2 Production sites in France and Poland
13 drying towers
