The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Based in the Angers Technopole in France, Nor-Feed was founded 20 years ago by Pierre and Cecile Chicoteau. The company has had notable successes in terms of the development and registration of botanical additives for use in animal feed.
Adisseo has worked alongside the plant extracts player since 2016, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange listed group said the investment is a key step for Adisseo in its strategy of developing specialty ingredients.
The two entities have identified synergies from the merger, in particular the further penetration of plant extracts in high growth markets where Adisseo is already well-established and has real legitimacy.
Nor-Feed will continue to autonomously manage its R&D, production, and sales network, while Olivier Clech and Pierre Chicoteau will stay on as the company's two co-directors.
The demand for botanical additives for animal nutrition is expanding every year, noted Clech. “We have experienced an average annual growth rate of more than 20% over the last 11 years, driven in particular by our solutions to offset oxidative stress or manage coccidial risk. The growth potential remains considerable, and the team is very committed to continuing our development [work].”
Documented benefits
Nor-Feed has focused its efforts on a limited number of plants and molecules: saponins, grape extracts, citrus extracts, and a few others with the goal of offering well characterized and fully standardized additives with documented health and nutrition benefits: alternatives to AGPs, natural coccidiostats, physiological antioxidants, stress management and animal well-being solutions, gut flora balancers and repellents for ectoparasites.
The plant extracts producer is part of the Vegepolys competence cluster in the Angers Technopole, a network of research institutes, universities and leading companies specialized in the field of botanicals.
On the asset trail
Adisseo has long stated that it wants to boost its specialty products segment and become one of the worldwide leaders in that space. The FRAmelco acquisition, which closed in November 2020, reflected those ambitions.
Most of FRAmelco’s sales are linked to its glycerides – short and medium chain fatty acids – and its lysolecithins product portfolio.
