Barentz International: Pushing into Asia Pacific

08 Apr 2014 --- Barentz International plans to strengthen its presence further in the Asia Pacific and to grow its food and nutrition activities in this region, Food Ingredients First has learned. Yesterday’s announcement that the company would be joining forces with Additive Solutions to distribute specialty ingredients across Australia and New Zealand is one part of this strategy.

“Australia and New Zealand represent attractive markets where players in the dairy industry, infant nutrition, health and wellbeing segments are showing steady growth, supported by export demand,” ceo Hidde van der Wal told Food Ingredients First. “These countries are important to Barentz in strengthening our presence in the Asia Pacific region, while our food & nutrition activities are a very important pillar in our focus on life sciences.”

As part of the deal, Bartenz has acquired a majority stake in Additive Solutions, who will also be handling the sales, marketing and distribution of the LI Frank and Vitablend ingredients and products.

Headquartered in Melbourne Australia, Additive Solutions services a range of industries including the food, beverage, confectionary, nutrition, health and well-being and animal health sectors across Australia and New Zealand. For Barentz International, headquartered in The Netherlands and active in close to 40 countries across three continents, the strategic partnership with Additive Solutions adds two strategically important country representations to the Barentz Food & Nutrition business.

Hidde van der Wal, CEO of Barentz International explained that Barentz had been searching for a strategic partner in Australia for some time to strengthen its position in this part of the world. Barentz was looking for a company that shared similar values including strong technical expertise, an emphasis on quality ingredients and customer service. Hidde van der Wal added: “The technical understanding of our sales force and the technical application expertise we can offer our customers throughout their product development and production stages is a very important business driver for us. We were impressed with the expertise and skills of the Additive Solutions team, and this was a very important aspect in our decision to join forces with them.”

Jim Nanos, Managing Director of Additive Solutions explained: “This development is an absolute advantage for our customers. Supported by Barentz’s industry extensive networks and deep industry knowledge we are able to offer a very comprehensive product range across both Australia and New Zealand. Vitablend’s range of antioxidant blends and nutritional premixes is an obvious example. I am also personally delighted to be representing LI Frank who produce innovative bean and grain based ingredients including Lupin proteins, which are grown in Australia.”

by Sonya Hook