Algaia and AIDP Announce Partnership, Strengthening Position in North American Market
23 May 2017 --- Algaia, S.A., and AIDP, Inc. have announced their entry into a distribution partnership to market Algaia’s alginates and other specialty marine-based solutions to customers in Canada, USA and Mexico. This distribution partnership begins on June 1st 2017. The arrangement was finalized at Vitafoods, in Geneva, where several companies of Algaia’s main shareholders, Maabarot Products Ltd and Demeter presented.
“This distribution partnership is a major step forward for Algaia, supporting our growth ambitions for USA, Canada and Mexico,” says Fabrice Bohin, CEO of Algaia. “We are anticipating double digit growth. Together with AIDP, we will be able to provide expanded service to our customers requiring alginates, while developing new opportunities for our algae-based ingredients line.”
Paris, France-based Algaia specializes in a wide range of algae-based ingredients. The growing company boosted its product offerings at the beginning of this year through its acquisition of Cargill’s alginates business and manufacturing plant. The company was completely re-invented in 2015 and has, since, experienced rapid growth with its first M&A move in April 2016. This was followed by opening a new R&D center in Saint-Lô in October. Also during the first quarter, Algaia invested €3 million ($3.37 million) in its manufacturing facility in Lannilis, France, located next to a large resource of fresh seaweed biomass. 
“We utilize fresh seaweed harvested predominantly from the Brittany coastal areas, next to our facility, applying our ‘Green Refinery’ concept to comply with customer and consumer demands for high quality products derived from sustainable natural sources,” adds Bohin.
Founded in 1996 and headquartered in the City of Industry, California, AIDP has extensive experience in sourcing and developing innovative solutions. “We are delighted that AIDP will represent Algaia in the region and that we can add Algaia’s portfolio to our offering of products focused on meeting consumer demand for natural, wellness and health products,” enthuses Mark Thurston, President of AIDP Inc. “Our commitment is to source and supply high-quality ingredients backed by research, and provide proprietary solutions that address formulation challenges in mainstream food, functional food and beverages.”
Earlier this year, Algaia bolstered its growth in specialty marine ingredients by completing the acquisition of Cargill’s Alginate business and manufacturing plant. This latest deal strengthened Algaia’s portfolio following the acquisition of start-up company, Alganact SA, which specializes in seaweed biomass valorization, as well as the opening of a greenfield Research & Development center in France and recruiting a team of business and technical experts.
According to CEO of Algaia, Fabrice Bohin, sustainability is a key driver pushing the seaweed products space. “The main driver for the increasing interest towards seaweeds is linked to consumer pressure for natural products with a healthy nutritional profile but also the mainstream trend towards sustainability. Seaweed is one of the most sustainable raw materials as it does consume CO2 when growing and does not require any irrigation water, cultivation land, pesticides or fertilizers to grow. In addition, there are a lot of possibilities to naturally cultivate seaweed to expand the resource if needed without impacting the planet,” Bohin told FoodIngredientsFirst.
“Algaia is gearing up to become a major player in innovative specialty seaweed extracts. Our R&D center, in partnership with various universities and institutes, has been working to develop innovative extraction processes that will enable us to introduce new solutions for the food industry by 2018.”
Currently, Algaia offers a large range of brown and red seaweed based extracts such as alginates and Carrageenans, backed up by developing specific customized solution and decades of manufacturing experience dealing with very low and very high viscosity.
You can read more on seaweed and microalgae innovation here.
by Elizabeth Green
