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EXCLUSIVE DEAL WITH SABIC STRENGTHENS DISTRUPOL’S POSITION IN THE FRENCH POLYMERS MARKET
Distrupol, a member company of Univar and a leading European polymer distributor, technical service provider and application development partner, has signed an agreement with SABIC that takes it a significant step further in building a leadership position in the French market. SABIC EuroPetrochemicals BV (Sittard, The Netherlands) is a SABIC subsidiary which includes all SABIC activities in Europe and employs around 2300 people. SABIC has a European sales offices network, logistic hubs and two petrochemical sites in Europe: at Geleen (The Netherlands) and at Gelsenkirchen (Germany). SABIC sales in Europe amount to almost 6 million tonnes of polymers, base chemicals and intermediates. SABIC (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) is the largest petrochemical company in the Middle East and has two large-scale industrial sites in Saudi-Arabia (Al-Jubail and Yanbu) with 16 production complexes. SABIC also has participations in three production complexes in Bahrain. In 2003 net profit totalled EUR 1.4 billion and total sales amounted to EUR 10 billion. Under the agreement Distrupol will absorb, into its own operations, the facilities and staff of SABIC-owned polymer distributor Aimé Vistalli S.A.. “This agreement represents an extremely important step for Distrupol in France,” explains David Jukes, CEO of Distrupol. “It will considerably strengthen our operation, virtually doubling it in size. At the same time it enables us to better balance our geographical coverage. Distrupol has been reaching across France from its base in Paris. Vistalli’s distribution centre at Oyonnax will not only give us a firm foothold in the south of the country, but one that is in the heart of France’s ‘plastics valley’,” says Jukes. The absorption of Vistalli’s distribution business in that of Distrupol France is the most natural fit after our decision to divest Vistalli, says Eric Hogenboom, Business Unit Director PP at SABIC. Distrupol was already our distributor partner in France for a longer period in time. According to Jean Paul Bondier, General Manager SABIC France: “Around 90% of Vistalli’s distribution business is accounted for by SABIC’s products. Therefore the fusion of Vistalli into Distrupol’s established sales network will provide SABIC brands with a deeper and wider reach into the French market, and secure a high level of technical expertise to support them.” Commenting on the agreement, which will come into effect on July 1, François-Xavier du Passage, Managing Director of Distrupol France, says: “As a polymer distributor it is absolutely key to be able to offer customers a strong choice of polyolefins, as well as an excellent range of engineering plastics. With the inclusion of SABIC’s PE and PP products, in addition to extra PET and PS polymers, we will have these valuable additions to our basket of materials’ solutions.”
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