5 minute read
News bulletin – chemical distribution
NEWS BULLETIN
CHEMICAL DISTRIBUTION
OQEMA SIGNS DEAL WITH CHEMADA
The Oqema Group has entered into an exclusive agency and sales partnership with leading Israeli fine and speciality chemicals manufacturer Chemada Industries. Oqema will act as an agent and distributor in Europe for Chemada’s entire range of brominated intermediates and bromination reagents. In addition, order syntheses based on other technologies will also deliver to the Benelux, France, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, the UK, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, the Baltic States, Italy and Hungary.
“For us as a leading distributor of special products, currently represented in 21 European countries, Chemada’s intermediate products business means a strong expansion of our portfolio,” says Dr James Berwick, group director specialties at Oqema AG. “As the Oqema Group would like to further expand its range of chemical intermediates, we are making every effort to bring industry leaders and innovators with a strong brand and market reputation into important areas of our portfolio. Our teams of technical sales experts are well equipped to offer the Chemada products in our network.”
For Chemada, the market presence of Oqema and the professional competence of its teams are crucial, as Eyal Azulay, CEO of Chemada Industries, explains: “We are looking forward to this new partnership with the Oqema Group. The Oqema Group’s extensive market and application experience in the life science and technical industries, its proven performance in terms of value creation in the distribution markets, and its willingness and ability to represent the entire Chemada product range, guarantee successful cooperation.”
The deal with Oqema coincides with Chemada Industries taking over direct control of the marketing, sales and distribution of its products, after 45 years of working through Israel Chemicals Ltd (ICL). “We take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks and appreciation to ICL and its people, for many years of great collaboration,” the company says. oqema.com
AZELIS BIG IN ASIA
Azelis has acquired CosBond, a Chinese distributor of speciality chemicals and food ingredients. Headquartered in Hong Kong, CosBond has offices and warehouses in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing. It represents more than 30 global principals, largely in the personal care sector.
“Azelis China has enjoyed a steady growth since its inception in 2013 and has grown to become one of the main international players in the Chinese distribution industry,” says Laurent Natag, CEO/president of Azelis Asia Pacific. “We have a strong presence in the food and nutrition market and we have been growing over past years in serving the personal care, homecare, agro and coatings industries. We are very excited to be able to now extend this vast technical knowledge to CosBond’s principals and customers.”
“China has a large and fast-growing personal care market, so now is the right moment to enhance our service offering,” adds Jackson Chu, managing director of Azelis China. “The combination of CosBond’s extended customer base, our joint good market knowledge and strong technical and formulation capabilities of Azelis’ Personal Care team will result in a more comprehensive specialty offering in China. In addition, we are confident this acquisition will bring ample cross-selling opportunities as well
as prospects to expand the business with our existing long-standing and trusted partners.”
Jerome Cheung, strategic director at CosBond, says: “We have had a very strong commercial presence on the market and have built a significant customer base, but the strong formulation and application support that Azelis can offer will bring a lot of added value in our offering to the market. We will also benefit from Azelis’ strong international infrastructure and access to additional customers and suppliers, as well as an increased focus on corporate social responsibility, something which is key in serving the personal care industry. We are also excited about the wider geographic reach we will be having. In short, we see many growth synergies and we are confident that we are entering a thriving new chapter in the history of our company.”
Elsewhere in Asia, Azelis has signed a new agreement under which it will distribute Merck Performance Materials’ complete range in Vietnam for personal care, CASE, food & health, and industrial chemicals. The deal expands on an existing agreement in other countries and will see a number of Merck personnel transition to Azelis.
Panutin Tantichuwet, head of commercial at Merck for south-east Asia and Australia/New Zealand, says: “Azelis is a global leader in specialty chemicals distribution. Their local technical sales team will help us focus on enhanced services to our customers in Vietnam, where we aim to improve customer intimacy, innovation and technology effort.” www.azelis.com
LBB BUYS DIEN
LeBaronBrown Specialties (LBB) has acquired a majority interest in Dallas-based Dien, a distributor of speciality chemicals and ingredients. Dien Stout, president of Dien, will retire but the management team, led by James Williams, will stay with the business.
“The investment brings additional resources and commercial relationships to best support the growth of Dien’s suppliers and customers, building upon the success of our dedicated Dien team,” says Stout. “We are excited about our future and the partnership with LBB Specialties, and believe significant opportunities lie ahead,” adds Williams.
Darren Birkelbach, CEO of LBB Specialties, says: “We are thrilled by the addition of Dien to the LBB Specialties platform. The company’s high-quality, multi-decade performance history and reputation as a premier specialty chemical and ingredients provider are a testament to the outstanding team in place at Dien. We look forward to the opportunity to provide resources and support to the management team at Dien to fuel continued growth.” www.lebaronbrown.com
BIG DEALS FOR BIESTERFELD
Biesterfeld and Songwon are expanding their long-term partnership to include functional polymers. Biesterfeld will be responsible for the European distribution of some 20 new products consisting of bisphenol-based monomers and high-performance monomers based on diacid anhydrides and dicyclopentadiene-phenol adducts (DCPD) for the production and modification of bonding agents.
“Resin manufacturers can benefit even more from the high performance, cost efficiency and competitive prices of our functional monomers, because we are now producing them in large quantities,” says Heinrich Schulte, head of Market Center Functional Monomers at Songwon. “Our products are already well established on the Asian market, so now, working with Biesterfeld, we want to bring them to the European market.”
Biesterfeld has also extended its distribution partnership with US manufacturer Scigrip. After successfully handling the distribution of two-part methyl methacrylate (MMA) adhesives in Poland, the Baltic States, Germany and France, the agreement has now been extended to include the UK market.
“Biesterfeld has proven itself as an invaluable partner to Scigrip over the last three years,” says Tim Johnson, sales and marketing manager at Scigrip. “Thanks to their expertise and experience in the Advanced Materials market, and our proven product range and continuing focus on technical developments, collaborating in this market made sense for us both. We are excited to see what we can achieve together.” www.biesterfeld.com
