Merck KGaA Sells Nutriblend Business to LycoRed

06-May-2003

Darmstadt, Germany - Merck KGaA announced today that it has sold its Nutriblend Ltd. nutritional supplements business to LycoRed Natural Products Industries Ltd. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The divestiture includes two business lines: the nutritional systems business of formulation, manufacturing and packaging of vitamins and minerals for enriching foods, and the vitamins, minerals and supplements trading business that purchases, distributes and sells individual compounds to the nutrition and food markets. All employees will remain with Nutriblend, which is based in Rochester, UK. Nutriblend has annual sales of between EUR 10 million and EUR 15 million.

"As Merck's Life Science Products division continues to focus more on products and services for the pharmaceutical industry, nutritional products are no longer a core business," said Dr. Bernd Reckmann, Head of Merck's Life Science Products division.

LycoRed Chief Executive Officer Morris Zelkha commented: "The product mix of Nutriblend and its location in the UK make it a perfect fit with our product portfolio and our strategic plans for Europe."

Merck will toll-manufacture selected premixes for Nutriblend at its Darmstadt facilities and Merck's subsidiaries in Spain and Poland will continue to distribute products for Nutriblend.

About LycoRed:

LycoRed, founded in Israel in 1995, is the world's sole manufacturer of LycoMato® -the only all natural tomato lycopene complex. It also owns Biodar, a world leader in micro-encapsulated vitamins and minerals. LycoRed is a subsidiary of Makhteshim-Agan Industries Ltd., one of the world's leading manufacturers of generic crop-protection products, and itself a subsidiary of Koor Industries. Please see: www.lycored.com for more information.

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/22700/merck-kgaa-sells-nutriblend-business-to-lycored.html