Azelis continues APAC growth strategy on back of new Indonesian partnership
Beginning last month, Azelis has begun a distribution partnership with CP Kelco to offer its carrageenan, pectin, gellan gum and xanthan gum products for the food segment in Indonesia.
“We are thrilled with the continued expansion of our strategic partnership with CP Kelco. We have demonstrated solid growth in the food and health segment in general, and Asia Pacific in particular,” said Laurent Nataf, CEO & President of Asia Pacific, Azelis.
“We have built a food and health team in Indonesia comprised of experts with diverse backgrounds, mainly with multinational company experience and excellent knowledge of the local market. This has been a proven recipe for Azelis that brings differentiation to our principals and customers alike.”
Innovation focus
Apart from having extended some of its strategic partnerships into Asia-Pacific, in late 2017 Azelis completed the acquisition of Chemcolour in Australia and New Zealand and significantly grew its presence in Asia Pacific.
Nataf also said Azelis has opened three new laboratories in India which, along with innovation awards in other categories, show that innovation is high on the company’s agenda.
Nataf said it is the company’s strategy to balance organic growth and carefully-selected strategic acquisitions.
“(In Asia Pacific) We do this by bringing mandates from the key strategic principals in the Americas and EMEA, by investing heavily into new technical and commercial resources that will focus on the principal range, and by leveraging the knowledge from the international network, to name only some of the activities,” he said.
“All this allows us to set ambitious growth targets and deliver results.”
Nataf added that Azelis is committed to bringing the success from other regions into Asia Pacific.
“Our key partners recognise and value this effort and trust us with more mandates in the region. The partnership with CP Kelco in Indonesia is one of those examples,” he said.
Nataf further shared that there have been some regulatory challenges in Asia-Pacific markets
“Asia-Pacific is a big, diverse region with a lot of (different) specifics per country. But there is one strong commonality: regulatory requirements are becoming increasingly stringent and necessitate a lot of attention.
“Being a global leader in distribution of speciality chemicals, we have established processes that enable us to meet those requirements efficiently and this is something that the region benefits from.
“We get a lot of support from our corporate teams like SHEQ (safety, health, environment and quality group), for example.”
The next step
Nataf said that Azelis is seeking to gain a leading position in each country in Asia Pacific.
“We aim to do so in all market segments that Azelis is active in, particularly in food and health, agri/horti, personal care and in CASE (coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomer). It is the usual Azelis strategy to be the best local champion, out-competing local players,” said Nataf.
The new Indonesian distribution partnership builds upon existing agreements between the two companies in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC).
Said Richard Yin, vice-president of Asia Pacific of CP Kelco, “Our partnership with Azelis has been very successful in other regions and, paired with their knowledge and expertise of the food segment, we are confident that this will be a good next step in that partnership.”
“Azelis is well positioned to increase market penetration and we look forward to growing this partnership further together.”
According to Nataf, Azelis started distribution activities in the Asia Pacific region in 2012 from scratch. Within five years, the company established a presence in 10 countries.
In that time, Azelis opened 18 offices and 16 laboratories in the region. Staff strength in Asia Pacific has also tripled in the last two years.
Azelis is present in over 40 countries across the globe, with around 1,800 employees in total. Following the acquisition of Chemcolour, the company now has 275 employees in Asia Pacific.
