The company said the agreement will improve its customer relations and help it to accelerate growth in North America, as well as increase the reach of its Veron baking enzyme range, which has multiple uses in flour improvement and milling.
AB Enzymes already has a US headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, but until now, it was working with a distributor covering only the Mideast region.
“After assessing several candidates, the benefit with [The Ingredients Company] was that they already supply baking ingredients in North America and they can cover the whole of the United States and Canada,” said Pieter-Jan Heykoop, sales development manager baking at AB Enzymes.
He told FoodNavigator-USA.com that the new partnership would provide AB Enzymes with a better market presence in North America – including smaller accounts – and it will supply enzymes to the milling market and the bread improvement market, but not to industrial bread manufacturers.
Heykoop said that a major benefit of using Veron baking enzymes is “optimum use of what is naturally present in flour” to provide faster throughput in the factory, to make higher quality bread, to increase shelf life, or to increase bread volume.
“This can also be done with other ingredients, but the benefit of enzymes is that you use a natural process that gives optimum use of the flour,” he said. “...When a manufacturer starts to bake, the enzyme is deactivated, so there is no need to label it.”
The Ingredients Company already supplies baking ingredients in North America and has conveniently-located warehouses throughout the region, AB Enzymes said.
AB Enzymes supplies its products to more than 50 countries and is part of ABF Ingredients Group, a subsidiary of Associated British Foods.