ICLs New Ambition: Global Specialty Nutrition Dominance

Index:

1. Overview

2. R&D Expenditure

3. Powerhouse Ambitions

4. Software Assets

5. Final Thoughts on Building a Right to Win

Overview

During the ICL Q3 2025 earnings call, executives shared new strategic pillars, including their enhanced focus on two areas: specialty crop nutrition and specialty food solutions.

Given the acquisitions that ICL has made over the last 5 years, such as Lavie Bio, Custom Ag Formulators, Nitro 1000, Compass Minerals and Greenbest, the enhanced focus on specialty nutrition is not surprising.

For ICL, “specialty” includes the following:

They have already grown the segment considerably over the last 4 years, notably >3xing EBITDA while just doubling revenue:

R&D

There weren’t a lot of details shared in terms of what exactly the new focus looks like, but some overarching points of emphasis were mentioned such as shifting product mix to more biostimulants and coating/nutrient use efficiency products (relative to specialty dry fertilizer for example), looking at more acquisitions, and optimism around some recent R&D investment that they suggested would bear fruit in coming years.

An interesting note, ICL R&D expenditure has been relatively flat over the last few years at around $70 million and only increasing $20 million since 2020, when their acquisition efforts in the segment began:

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