
From 1990, Henri Gondrand wanted to diversify and secure the supply of raw materials. He turned to South East Asia, where the main producers of vegetable fatty acids are located. After a study trip lasting several weeks, he decided to invest in Malaysia, the leading producer of palm oil. He created, in partnership with a producer of vegetable fatty acids, the company Natoleo, a joint venture that gave birth to the company Dubois Natural Ester (DNE). She made her first productions in 1996.
The plant is designed to manufacture three esters which have become commodities in Europe and whose market has become highly competitive: isopropyl palmitate, isopropyl myristate and medium chain trigyceride. DNE is developing and changing its local partner: today, in Malaysia, the Dubois stéarinerie is associated with the Wilmar company.
This visionary investment provides the company with production capacity and strategic access to sources of plant fatty acids in the heart of Southeast Asia. It is reinforced by the BSE crisis (bovid spongiform encephalopathy commonly called mad cow) which leads to abandon raw materials of animal origin.
Continuing its growth, in 1998, the company bought one of its troubled customers, the company PBBC, which specializes in manufacturing aids for the confectionery industry. The Dubois stéarinerie is thus starting to develop a new activity, food, with the manufacture of high-tech esters, sucroesters: emulsifiers combining sugar and fatty acids. The Dubois stéarinerie will become the only European producer of this class of molecules, with production starting in 1998.
In 2009, a subsidiary, managed by Hervé Gondrand, son of Henri Gondrand, was created in Shanghai, to develop sales in Asia.
In 2016, Hervé Gondrand returned to France to take over the reins of the company, and continue the family entrepreneurial adventure … The adventure continues!