SENS Foods: Scaling Up Sustainable Cricket Protein

The founders of SENS Foods (SENS), a Czech sustainable-food small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), wanted to expand the business beyond their home market. SENS was operating in the rapidly growing alternative-protein market using products derived from edible crickets. Due to its increasing profitability and international expansion potential, SENS saw an opportunity to expand into one of more Nordic markets—Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. SENS had to explore the possible modes of entry and evaluate the most suitable ones. In the short term, SENS had a sustained competitive advantage with its Thailand-based Cricket Lab Ltd. farm and its brand name. SENS’s intangible resources—business positioning and messaging, innovation, and research—represented a temporary competitive advantage. For market selection purposes, five cluster criteria were proposed to assess the attractiveness of the identified markets: estimating the level of primary competition, market maturity, market size, country environmental performance, and transportation costs. The founders needed to evaluate the four Nordic countries using these five selection criteria to identify the top two countries for further examination regarding mode of entry and level of competition.

The case study is suitable for graduate-level courses in growth strategy and international management, as well as strategic management courses with a module on international business. This case provides an overview of the internationalization process of a firm active in a novel food area: insect protein. Although food products based on insect protein are not entirely new, acceptance of this sustainable protein food varies across countries. This case sheds light on this industry’s trends; it enables students to explore and evaluate several countries and shortlist those considered ideal for international expansion. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to <ul><li>understand the internationalization process of a company active in a novel food sector, encompassing the product’s acceptance uncertainty by consumers;</li><li>apply several frameworks such as PESTEL (political, legal, economic, social, and environmental factors), CAGE (cultural, administrative, geographical, and economic factors), and Porter’s five-forces analysis to a food sector company to evaluate the suitability of various countries and select the best ones; and</li><li>understand market entry modes for a food company and the opportunities and challenges to adapting a business model to external changes.</li></ul>

• sustainable food
• CEE
• cricket protein