Pancosma, which has turnover of around €55million ($71m) and plants in France, Switzerland, Canada, Poland and China, is active in flavors, sweetening palatants, bioactives, organic trace minerals, vegetal charcoals, and acidifier blend production for the livestock feed sector.
“The Pancosma deal is the first of several in the pipeline as we are aiming to be in the top five specialty feed additive makers in the world.
Compared to other feed markets, this segment is not that consolidated, so there are other acquisition targets available,” Matthieu Leroy, director of projects, communication, and CEO advisor at InVivo NSA, told FeedNavigator this morning.
Financial details of the transaction, announced on Friday, were not disclosed. The deal is set to close before the end of the year.
The acquisition comes at a time when the global market for animal feed additives, notes Grand View Research in a recent study, is expected to reach $19.54 billion by 2020.
Growing protein demand, especially in Asia Pacific and Latin America, is expected to be a key driver for additive growth over the next six years. In addition, various disease outbreaks in livestock animals in the past decade have led to increased regulations on meat quality and safety which has further prompted the use of feed additives.
Acidifiers are forecast to be the fastest growing product in that segment. They are projected to have an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.4% from now until 2020, according to the US research firm.
Specialty additives said to offer high ROI
Leroy is extremely positive about the revenue generation possibilities of the segment : “The specialty feed additive sector is extremely appealing as it does not require as much capital input as other feed segments but generates a high return on investment.
There is huge interest in acidifiers, in particular, as demand for alternatives to antibiotics increases.”
Complementary additive range
And he said there are very few products in the Swiss company’s portfolio in which InVivo NSA's additive range is in direct competition: “Pancosma’s distribution network, R&D proficiency and ingredients are all complementary to ours.
InVivo lacked expertise in relation to certain feed additives – this deal really helps to plug those gaps. And we intend to build on Pancosma’s existing data by running trials on its various additives at our experimental farms.”
He said senior management at Pancosma have agreed to stay on for at least three years “to focus on enabling the synergies between the two businesses and creating a new efficient and dynamic additive business unit.”
The 135 employees at the Swiss company will be retained as well, said Leroy.
Investment in innovation
Leroy also talked about the new innovation center InVivo NSA is building at its HQ in Brittany, which is slated to come on line in the first quarter of 2016. “The group is investing €5m in the project which will change how we work. This is looking at innovation on a broad scale, and will incorporate every aspect of the business from manufacturing to marketing to strategic analysis as well as R&D.”
In tandem with the new center, he said InVivo is also accelerating its open innovation policy in a bid to find cutting edge projects and collaborate with partners from universities, research institutes, start-up companies developing novel feed inputs or companies engaged in initiatives supporting the environment.