Barentz, a global life science ingredients distributor headquartered in the Netherlands, recently acquired the Singapore-based Nardev in October.
Through the acquisition, Nardev would be able to further expand its presence in the APAC market, where it believes still holds untapped opportunities.
“For us, the merger with Barentz marks the start of a new era, in which we get more opportunities to deeper penetrate our current markets. In addition, we share with Barentz the same passion for technical knowledge and formulary support,” said Khoe Hong Oan, CEO of Nardev.
The company has a large presence in South East Asia. In addition to Singapore, the company also operates offices and laboratories in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia.
“Per capita, income continues to grow substantially in most of our markets, this means that there are strong opportunities for us to continue to contribute to many markets that are increasingly open to higher quality and more innovative ingredients, which are our focus,” said Khoe.
Among the SEA markets, Khoe said the firm’s biggest opportunities lie in Indonesia.
“Geographically, Indonesia represents a market which will outpace most in the region, with its demographics and fast-growing middle class.”
Khoe told CosmeticsDesign-Asia that the strongest trends in the personal care market in the region included skin brightening and anti-ageing products.
“We work closely with a number of our principals in sharing marketing data that helps us to understand the nuances and demands of our clients. From this, we derive our R&D priorities. This steers our development processes with focus and a clear direction.”
In addition to these stalwart categories, the company has seen a growing demand for green ingredients to cater to the growing focus on sustainability.
“In 2021, Nardev will be focusing on sustainable and ‘go green’ ingredients for the personal care market. There is a growing interest among formulators in such ingredients, in line with increasing consumer awareness about the importance of protecting the environment,” said Khoe.
Strengthening APAC hold
Torsten Pieschnick, VP of Barentz, said that the acquisition of Nardev would allow the company to expand into the APAC personal care market.
“The personal care market is growing rapidly, especially in Asia. Barentz already established a role in the APAC human nutrition market some time ago. The acquisition of Nardev fully complements Barentz’ current value proposition and is aligned with our objective to become a global leader in the life science ingredients market.”
Pieschnick added that having a presence in the APAC personal care market was an important step in the firm’s aim to becoming a global leader in the life science ingredients market.
“Barentz has recently bolstered operations in North and South America, now we have in all the regions of the world dedicated personal care laboratory facilities to support its customers and principals through offering tailor-made formulations that follow local market trends.”
