Roquette and Azelis have announced that they have signed an agreement for distribution in food and nutrition markets in Germany, Austria and Nordics/Baltics. The partnership will also include south Italy, Russia, Ukraine, and other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as of 1 January 2019.

Roquette says it has chosen Azelis as one of its key distributors thanks to its strong market presence, formulation development and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts. This distribution agreement, the company says, enables the group to optimize its distribution network. Both companies claim to share a focus on innovation and technical service to customers based on expert knowledge in business support, together with a philosophy of sustainable development, transparency and constructive collaboration. Roquette notes that its sustainable development approach consists of innovating, sourcing, acting and bio-refining sustainably. Azelis was recently awarded Gold rating by EcoVadis, putting the company in the top 1% of all surveyed distributors.

Evy Hellinckx, Strategy and Business Development Director EMEA Azelis, said: “We are very excited about this new partnership for two reasons: firstly, it perfectly complements our current portfolio in Food & Health, strengthening our position in Europe; secondly, it is a wonderful recognition of our technical capabilities, the quality of our sales force and our CSR efforts. I am very happy to see not only a good business rationale, but also an excellent fit when it comes to methods of collaboration, transparency, organizational alignment and hands-on approach. All the negotiations have been done in an exceptionally pleasant and constructive atmosphere and I am confident that many successes will come out of it.”

Laurent Cousin, Head of Global Distribution Management Roquette, said: “Roquette is committed to providing its customers with good, reliable plant-based ingredients and vegetal proteins, as well as an excellent level of service and has strong growth ambitions to better serve its customers in Food, Nutrition and Health markets worldwide. Thus, one of the main criteria for the distributor selection was Azelis’ ability to demonstrate how we would improve growth, profitability and productivity with them. Transparency, technical capabilities and good market presence also played a significant role. In all these areas, Azelis demonstrated high standards of professionalism and dedication so the choice for us was clear. We are confident that Azelis’ customer intimacy will provide us with great insights on market trends which are often dictated by the medium-sized customers that they serve, and this is critical for further product development and innovation.”

Azelis runs 55 application laboratories around the world, of which 16 are dedicated to local Food & Health markets in Belgium, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, India, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and UK.