HealthyProteins partners with Hammer to develop its growth-focused strategy
After five years of building a strong foundation, HealthyProteins was ready to shape its next strategic plan to drive further differentiation and growth. Following its strategic trajectory with Hammer, HealthyProteins is now well-informed and positioned to advance towards its goals.
Established in 2020, HealthyProteins is a B2B supplier of high-quality, organic, plant-based proteins. Its diverse portfolio includes ingredients such as almond, fava, pea, buckwheat and rice proteins, which can be applied across a wide range of food and nutrition segments.
For its next phase of growth, the management team aimed to sharpen its strategic focus and define clear growth priorities for the years ahead. To support this process, the Dutch company partnered with Hammer to take an independent, fact-based approach.
One of the main questions to answer was which alternative protein segments offer the greatest growth potential – and which combinations of proteins and applications create the most value. More inwards, the strategic assessment also needed to reveal which segments HealthyProteins should compete in, and how it could differentiate itself in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
Building a future strategy
To bring clarity to the matter, Hammer supported HealthyProteins with comprehensive market intelligence and strategic consulting services.
The project began with an assessment of market attractiveness. The consultants provided detailed insights into six core application areas for plant-based proteins, such as baby food and meat alternatives. The data included factors like consumption volumes, growth trends and plant-based protein penetration across these segments.
The next step was to evaluate differentiation potential. For a defined set of products, Hammer’s consultants identified links between ingredients and functional claims such as vitamin rich, non-allergenic or digestive support.
“We explored how the health benefits of ingredients like buckwheat, pea and fava were leveraged across food categories. This enabled HealthyProteins to understand how to position its ingredients based on their nutritional strengths,” said Ralph Boom, Project Lead at Hammer.
The analysis was extensive – more than 11,000 product-level data points were collected and analysed to uncover valuable insights into where HealthyProteins could meaningfully differentiate its portfolio. “We achieved this by applying advanced data science techniques such as web scraping and sophisticated data analysis.”
By combining these insights into a Market Attractiveness versus Business Ability (MABA) model, HealthyProteins was able to compare strategic options based on both market potential and its internal capability to compete. “This provided the information needed to decide where to compete and to set realistic growth priorities and goals within those segments.”
A foundation for strategic choices
“Hammer’s guidance has helped us establish the foundations for a focused strategy. We’re very pleased with the outcome and are currently using the results to build our strategic base,” said Johan Kamphuis, CEO of HealthyProteins.
The next step in the process is guided by a practical framework for strategic portfolio development, created by Hammer to support the operationalisation of the new strategy. Kamphuis noted that the fact-based approach has inspired confidence among executives and employees that the company is moving in the right direction.
“Hammer challenged us and delivered results grounded in solid data. By carefully listening to our goals and needs, they were able to translate them into a step-by-step research process – ultimately delivering exactly the insights we were looking for.”
