Barentz Opens South Africa Office

09 Sept 2014 --- Barentz International, an international leader in sales, marketing and distribution of food ingredients, has announced the opening of a new office in South Africa. This new office in South Africa is the first dedicated Barentz office on the African continent and a natural step following the growth potential identified in this area.

With a main office in Johannesburg and a representation in Cape Town, Barentz South Africa will initially serve customers in South Africa, with a plan to expand into the Sub-Saharan African countries.

“We can identify a number of key growth areas in the region,” a spokesman told FoodIngredientsFirst. “These include: salt and sugar replacers, beverage innovation, more fat less cargo, omega-3 awareness, drinking yoghurts, par baked products, coconut milk products replacing dairy products, convenience meals, bite sized snack innovation, chicken as the number one protein source and gluten free. We also see a growing demand for instance for our NuTek product portfolio as legislation is changing to reduce salt in consumer food products.”

Paul Vet has been appointed to manage the African operations and to serve customers in all the Barentz industries – Food & Nutrition, Pharmaceuticals, Personal Care and Animal Nutrition. Paul Vet has a long history in the food ingredients industry, most recently as Managing Director for Danisco Sub-Saharan Africa and prior to that as Technical Director for several Divisions of Tiger Brands, South Africa’s biggest Food Producer.
 
“Being in South Africa is a logical step for us,” says Hidde van der Wal, CEO of Barentz International. “With 55 million people, South Africa is a substantial market for the food industry. South Africa has seen a rise in the income of the middle class, giving way to the growth of large food retail stores like Shoprite Checkers, Pick ’n Pay, Woolworths and Spar. To supply these retail stores with food and beverage products, many leading global and local companies have established factories in Sub-Saharan Africa, needing high quality ingredients to produce their world class products.”
 
Operating from Johannesburg, Barentz will focus on establishing itself as a preferred supplier to the leading food & nutrition companies in the Sub Saharan countries, before developing the ingredients and additives business for the Pharmaceutical and Personal Care industries. With over 1 billion people, the Sub Saharan territories represent a major opportunity for growth for Barentz and its major suppliers. Barentz South Africa will offer a full range of ingredients and solutions to the food & nutrition market.
 
Paul Vet, Managing director of Barentz South Africa speaks with passion about the developments in the Sub Saharan African region: “With a steady rising income and knowledge about health foods there is a clear interest in specialty ingredients to produce for instance gluten free and organic products. More and more high technology food processing plants are built, with Nigeria topping the scale. With this comes the need for more technical support and for a super-efficient logistics system, which many trading companies are not able to supply. The Barentz team will make a difference here. Despite its considerable size it remains an entrepreneurial company, with solid ingredients expertise, reliable supply and guaranteed quality of ingredients. This is exactly what we need to supply global and local leaders in this region.”
 
The company says it has identified a number of key growth areas for the future in the Africa region, including: “Starches, emulsifiers, salt and sugar replacers, protein fortification, micro nutrient fortification, enzymes, phosphates, natural anti-oxidants, hydro-colloids, bakery and dairy premixes and stevia-based sweeteners,” the spokesman said. He also noted that there are some undeveloped categories in addition to the above, which could soon start to see growth, including: “Gluten free, stevia-based sweeteners, par baked products, coconut replacing some dairy products and natural antioxidants. For instance, we see a rise in the demand for natural antioxidant systems whereas in the past the demand for this was almost non-existent.”

The office of Barentz in South Africa is part of the international expansion strategy of the Barentz group. Barentz has grown substantially in the last couple of years, realising a group turnover of 880 million Euros in 2013.