Sunwin Stevia International and Wild Flavors GmbH enter global distribution deal

29-Aug-2012 - Last updated on 30-Aug-2012 at 14:51 GMT

Sunwin USA has ended its distribution deal with Wild Flavors, Inc. to facilitate a global partnership between parent companies Sunwin Stevia International, Inc. and Germany-based Wild Flavors GmbH.

The agreement gives Sunwin exclusive ownership of certain flavor formulations developed for use with the company’s stevia extracts, with an estimated value of about $2m, according to the company, while Wild acquires an additional 7.67m shares in exchange for its stake in Sunwin USA.

Wild Flavors GmbH gains non-exclusive rights to distribute, market, and resell Sunwin’s stevia products worldwide, and to use Sunwin trademarks.

CEO of WILD Flavors GmbH Michael Ponder said in a statement: “WILD and Sunwin have worked diligently over the past several years to utilize the plant science and stevia expertise of Sunwin to enhance Wild’s sweetening capabilities and solutions. The agreement allows us to expand the technological advancements for stevia formulations and systems globally through our extensive worldwide R&D and sales teams.”

US distribution agreement

Back in 2009, Wild Flavors, Inc. and Sunwin Stevia International partnered to produce natural sweetening blends for the food and beverage industry in the United States, on the heels of the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to allow stevia-derived sweeteners to be generally recognized as safe in foods and beverages. Wild Flavors, Inc. said at that time that the partnership would allow it to incorporate stevia-derived sweeteners in its food and flavor applications at the development stage, in order to bring its customers’ products to market faster than if it were sourcing the sweetener elsewhere.

Sunwin, meanwhile, said that the partnership would help it to branch out and attract new customers in the food and beverage industry, coming from a background of providing stevia extracts for the nutraceutical industry, as well as a stevia-derived tabletop sweetener.

Following the announcement of this latest distribution agreement, CEO of Sunwin Stevia International Dongdong Lin said: “Wild is one of the largest, privately-owned ingredient manufacturers in the food and beverage industry worldwide and we look forward to working more closely with them to capitalize on the growing market trends for healthier, low calorie and all natural food products. We look forward to supporting their global distribution efforts as we grow our company for the future.”