Ashland has appointed Barentz as strategic distribution partner for food and pharmaceutical ingredients in South Africa. Barentz and Ashland have been working together for many years in Europe and the addition of South Africa is an exciting step to expand the successful cooperation. The extension of the existing partnership between the two companies gives Barentz’ customers in South Africa access to an extensive portfolio of global specialty materials.

Joel Prouff, General Manager EMEA-Life Sciences: “Barentz is a distributor with whom Ashland has successfully worked in some European countries in recent years and we are pleased to broaden our distribution business with Barentz in South Africa. Barentz offers our customers outstanding support and their team of technical specialists is a valuable resource in creating innovative product solutions.”

Anthony Litchfield, Global Vice President Pharmaceutical Division at Barentz states: “Ashland are a global leader with their range of specialty excipients and we are delighted to extend our partnership to South Africa. This development follows our vision to be the leading global distribution partner for specialty pharma and nutra ingredients. The local Barentz team will provide technical and commercial support to ensure existing and new customers can take advantage of the formulation solutions that can be provided by this excellent product range.’’

Gökhan Oran, Global Vice President Human Nutrition Division at Barentz added: “Building on our long-lasting European partnership with Ashland, we are delighted to be chosen as their new partner for South Africa. Together with our local experts, application specialists and distribution network of our joint venture company SK Chemtrade, we will be able to ensure that Ashland’s polymer expertise is fully incorporated into our solutions for major food applications across South Africa. Our existing and new customers will benefit from the broad product and solution offering while Ashland will benefit from greater market access and local application expertise.”