French specialty chemicals distributor Safic-Alcan has announced that its UK subsidiary will become the sole distributor for AkzoNobel’s range of polymers, biopolymers and surfactants for the personal care industry in the UK and Ireland, effective June 15, 2016.

The agreement allows Safic-Alcan UK to distribute a full range of products from AkzoNobel, a major manufacturer of ingredients that deliver the essential functionalities formulators need to create innovative skin and hair care products. AkzoNobel supplies a wide array of functional ingredients such as rheology modifiers, film formers, actives, aesthetic modifiers, emulsifiers, cleansing and conditioning agents, and the product portfolio includes well-known brands such as Amphomer, Resyn, Dermacryl, Hydrovance, Dry-Flo, Structure and Elfacos.

This new partnership extends Safic-Alcan’s footprint in the distribution market for personal care in the UK. With its network of state-of-the-art life science laboratories in France, Italy and Turkey and a new one opening shortly in the UK, Safic-Alcan is dedicated to provide high technical support to AkzoNobel’s customers including formulation and testing. The expertise of Safic-Alcan’s dedicated sales engineers will allow the company’s customers to anticipate market expectations thus having a real competitive advantage.

“We have been working with AkzoNobel for many years and we are proud that they have chosen us to be their unique distributor of functional ingredients for personal care and fully represent them in the UK and Ireland. It is of significant value to Safic-Alcan in serving our customers who are continuously looking for local distributors able to commit to the supply of innovative personal care products,” said Philippe Combette, CEO of Safic-Alcan. Safic-Alcan is committed to growing its Personal Care business across Europe and the United States. It is one of the key industries that the company is focusing on and it is expanding quickly and intensively.