S Black eyes ingredients expansion through Azelis merger

S Black is hoping that the move will enable it to tap into Azelis's strongly developed distribution network throughout Europe, enabling it to break into a host of new markets.

"It was of prime importance to find a forward thinking, dynamic partner that would keep S. Black's reputation and identity intact, whilst providing the platform for increased geographic growth, and the benefits of being part of a pan-European organisation," said Neil Berry, S Black managing director.

Currently S Black has a strong presence in the UK and Irish market that was initially built around the sale of personal care ingredients, but later expanded into the food and nutrition as well as the household sectors.

The company also has a German subsidiary that covers the Swiss and German markets for both personal care and food ingredients.

For the personal care category it markets ingredients aimed at the skin care, hair care, sun care, colour cosmetics and oral care market, amongst others; while for the food and nutrition market it produces ingredients that include bakery, dairy, meat and confectionery segments.

The Azelis group is a network of 33 established companies situated in 22 European countries and is already involved in the food and nutrition, personal care, pharmaceuticals and fine chemical categories.

It was formed in 2001 and has grown through a direct 'growth by acquisition' strategy that has included purchasing specialty distributors as well as organic growth through the development of existing synergies.

Likewise Azelis says that it is hoping to build on the S Black acquisition, by developing the company's specific strengths, in turn increasing the diversity of its own portfolio.

"This will further enhance our already strong position in the fife sciences area which will also benefit from a number of additional planned acquisition in the next 12 months," said Azelis CEO, Udo Wenzel.

S Black has been particularly active in the personal care field recently, launching a number of innovative active ingredients that aim to meet the personal care industry's demand for increasingly effective products.

Recent launches have included Hydrovance, an ingredient that claims to provide skin moisturizing properties that last up to eight hours, together with RonaCare, an anti-ageing formulation that is said to have a proven effect on the reduction of wrinkles.

On the food side, one recent move by S Black has seen it focus on more natural ingredients, reflected by the recent launch of a malt extract-based replacement for Caramel E150c.