
Looxent conducted a comprehensive project to diagnose the business of a food waste treatment firm aiming for stable growth, focusing on market structure, competitive dynamics, and leading industry players. The project identified strategic initiatives for expanding market share and exploring new businesses, strengthening competitiveness, and establishing a sustainable growth foundation.
The food waste treatment industry is bifurcated into public and private sectors, each with distinct competitive landscapes and entry barriers. Public sector volumes—traditionally managed by municipalities—are declining, leading to reduced competition through consortium formations among major players. In contrast, the private sector is driven by collection and transportation companies. Securing material volumes from large-scale food waste generators is key to gaining market share.
Recent years have seen a slight decrease in overall food waste volumes. However, the pandemic has increased household waste, and public treatment volumes remain stable. Meanwhile, private treatment volumes are contracting, and intensified competition is exerting downward pressure on pricing. Although the expanding public facility capacity may further squeeze the private market, the rise of convenience foods (HMR) could revive certain commercial volumes.
Strategic Direction
The client aims to diversify beyond municipality-centric customers and strengthen sales capabilities to secure private sector volumes. To enhance competitiveness in the private market, establishing a presence in collection and transportation is crucial, ensuring both volume stability and better pricing control. A bolt-on acquisition strategy is under active consideration to increase material intake and better align existing treatment capacity with a vertically integrated collection-to-treatment model, improving overall profitability.
Exploring New Business Opportunities
To overcome the growth limitations of the food waste market, the company is evaluating entry into new segments like biodiesel production. Utilizing animal byproducts and waste cooking oil as feedstock for biodiesel—an expanding upstream market with strong margins—presents a promising opportunity. While initiatives like converting waste plastics and film into solid recovered fuel (SRF) offer limited synergies, they may be considered as phased expansions, in alignment with the company’s existing operations.
Moving forward, the company must tailor bidding strategies to regional competitive conditions, intensify proactive sales efforts to capture private sector volumes, and improve cost structures and resource utilization for greater operational efficiency. With these measures in place, the company can strengthen its leadership, successfully enter new business areas, and secure a sustainable growth engine in the evolving food waste treatment market.
Looxent conducted a comprehensive project to diagnose the business of a food waste treatment firm aiming for stable growth, focusing on market structure, competitive dynamics, and leading industry players. The project identified strategic initiatives for expanding market share and exploring new businesses, strengthening competitiveness, and establishing a sustainable growth foundation.
The food waste treatment industry is bifurcated into public and private sectors, each with distinct competitive landscapes and entry barriers. Public sector volumes—traditionally managed by municipalities—are declining, leading to reduced competition through consortium formations among major players. In contrast, the private sector is driven by collection and transportation companies. Securing material volumes from large-scale food waste generators is key to gaining market share.
Recent years have seen a slight decrease in overall food waste volumes. However, the pandemic has increased household waste, and public treatment volumes remain stable. Meanwhile, private treatment volumes are contracting, and intensified competition is exerting downward pressure on pricing. Although the expanding public facility capacity may further squeeze the private market, the rise of convenience foods (HMR) could revive certain commercial volumes.
Strategic Direction
The client aims to diversify beyond municipality-centric customers and strengthen sales capabilities to secure private sector volumes. To enhance competitiveness in the private market, establishing a presence in collection and transportation is crucial, ensuring both volume stability and better pricing control. A bolt-on acquisition strategy is under active consideration to increase material intake and better align existing treatment capacity with a vertically integrated collection-to-treatment model, improving overall profitability.
Exploring New Business Opportunities
To overcome the growth limitations of the food waste market, the company is evaluating entry into new segments like biodiesel production. Utilizing animal byproducts and waste cooking oil as feedstock for biodiesel—an expanding upstream market with strong margins—presents a promising opportunity. While initiatives like converting waste plastics and film into solid recovered fuel (SRF) offer limited synergies, they may be considered as phased expansions, in alignment with the company’s existing operations.
Moving forward, the company must tailor bidding strategies to regional competitive conditions, intensify proactive sales efforts to capture private sector volumes, and improve cost structures and resource utilization for greater operational efficiency. With these measures in place, the company can strengthen its leadership, successfully enter new business areas, and secure a sustainable growth engine in the evolving food waste treatment market.