24 May 2018 Spain’s Iberchem buys majority stake in SA flavour-colours company
The Iberchem Group has announced it has acquired a majority stake in Versachem, the privately-owned Pretoria company specialising in the development and manufacturing of food flavours and colours.
Versachem was founded in 2006 by Rina Wulfsohn, the current CEO who will remain with the company.
“We are glad to be welcoming all of Versachem’s employees within the Iberchem Group’s family,” said Ramón Fernández, CEO of Iberchem.
“Versachem’s portfolio and expertise, as well as its corporate culture, are highly complementary to the ones of the Group. This acquisition will help us to quickly expand our offer in what represents a key market for both our flavour and fragrance divisions.
“It will definitely accelerate our commitment to developing unique products tailored to local preferences and characteristics. Our team looks forward to leveraging on Versachem’s expertise.
“This announcement comes as a first milestone in Iberchem Group’s ongoing 2020 strategy of accelerating its organic growth through mergers and acquisitions.
The Group is also currently focusing on the expansion of the footprint and capabilities of its flavour division, Scentium, within key fast-growing markets.”
The terms of the mentioned deal have not been disclosed, while Deloitte and PwC acted as advisors of the transaction.
“We are delighted to be teaming with the Iberchem Group,” said Rina Wulfsohn, CEO of Versachem.
“This alliance will highly benefit our trusted customers in the region mostly by strengthening our existing capabilities and abilities in the development of innovative flavour solutions. It will allow both companies to broaden their offering in South Africa and its neighbouring countries.”
This news follows closely on another key acquisition in the SA flavour sector – that of Season to Season by the giant Irish group, Kerry. Read more here…
About Versachem – extracted from its website
Versachem is a proudly South African business and has become an established player in the Snack Food Industry through the manufacturing of quality flavours and colours.
In November 2005, Peter & Rina Wulfsohn had an idea and decided to follow it through. In January 2006, Rina started trading as Versatile Chemicals, by importing Food Colours directly from a reputable manufacturer in India. Blending and warehousing were initially done by a third party; however, by the end of 2006 Versatile Chemicals had moved into a small warehouse in Hennopspark and started blending in-house.
In November 2007, we acquired the business of “Ed Williams”, a Snack Flavour distributor, and had to expand our warehouse. By March 2008, we started developing and manufacturing snack flavours and had to expand once again.
In May 2011 Peter Wulfsohn joined the business, handling operations and assisting the sales function.
In June 2011 we moved into bigger premises to ensure we were able to keep up with the growing demand. This allowed us to successfully implement our Food Safety Programme resulting in an FSA GMP certification in 2012.
In November 2012, we changed our name from Versatile Chemicals to our shortened name, Versachem.
Our success is based on consistently high quality products at competitive prices, backed up by innovative development & application laboratories, dedicated staff, world class customer service and ethical practices.
With qualified Food Technologist & Flavourists, we have the ability to develop customer specific flavours and colours to meet any requirements. We operate our own fleet and deliver free of charge within Gauteng.
We are able to manufacture and supply Kosher and Halaal-certified colours and flavours.
About Iberchem
With a commercial presence in over 120 countries and counting on 12 R&D/production facilities strategically located around the world, Iberchem has become a leading reference in the flavour and fragrance industry since its foundation in Spain in 1985.
In 2017, the Group reported sales of €125M. Iberchem is supported by Eurazeo, a leading global investments company listed on Euronext Paris with a diversified portfolio of approximately €15BN in assets under management.