Premium Beauty News - Seppic announced the acquisition of the Bayer group’s Serdex division in early January. Now, that is quite useful to enrich your portfolio of natural ingredients!
Caroline Drouart - Obviously, this acquisition helps widen our product offering for the booming market of natural actives designed for the cosmetics industry. It corresponds to a basic strategy for our group, but we also intend to add a new technological bedrock to our know-how.
We are experts in bio-based chemistry, and since the acquisition of BiotechMarine, we have developed new ingredients derived from marine biotechnology. The acquisition of Serdex gives us access to highly pure plant extraction technologies. As an example, Serdex produces very accurately titrated extracts for the pharmaceutical industry and boasts an exceptional expertise in extraction techniques.
Just like BiotechMarine, Serdex becomes a Seppic subsidiary. It will still be based in Pau, France.
As a result, Seppic has three industrial sites in France: our historical site in Castres, in the south of France, dedicated to bio-based chemistry for cosmetics, the site of Pontrieux in Brittany for marine biotechnologies, and now the site of Serdex in Pau, for plant extraction.
The acquisition of Serdex also helps develop our position on the dermo-cosmetics market, which is their historic market and represents a strong growth driver for the next few years.
Premium Beauty News - Seppic and Serdex also seem very complementary on the geographic level.
Caroline Drouart - As a matter of fact, Serdex helps us strengthen our presence for certain key accounts in France, for whom the company very regularly works as a unique supplier on tailor-made development projects.
In addition, Serdex has a huge potential on the global scale: the company generates most of its turnover (8 million euros in 2015) in France, while 75% of Seppic’s turnover comes from international activities. This way, Serdex will be able to benefit from our strong commercial network around the world.
Premium Beauty News - Serdex was also famous for their commitment in CSR. Will their policy be pursued?
Caroline Drouart - Not only Serdex’s CSR commitment will be continued, but we intend to draw inspiration from their remarkable experience for everyone at Seppic to acquire new skills in this area. Serdex has been a member of the UEBT [1] since 2008, and got a 9.5/10 mark at the 2014 audit, so we are eager to benefit from their know-how.
Serdex is recognized for its ability to set up environmentally friendly supply chains for exotic plants, while enhancing the quality and skills of local suppliers, as well as the social and economic development of local communities. For example, the company has an excellent base in Madagascar.
Premium Beauty News - Are other acquisitions considered?
Caroline Drouart - Indeed, Seppic aims to pursue its external growth strategy, maybe on the global level.
