Univar, a global chemical and ingredient distributor and provider of value-added services, has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Univar Ltd, has reached an agreement to acquire Earthoil Plantations Limited, a subsidiary of Treatt, the London-listed manufacturer and supplier of innovative ingredient solutions for the flavour, fragrance, beverage, and consumer products industries.  In 2017, the Company generated approximately $11 million in annual sales.  The acquisition is expected to close at the end of May 2018.

Earthoil is a supplier of pure, organic, fair trade essential and cold-pressed vegetable seed oils used in the naturals, organic beauty, and personal care markets.  The Company has well-established relationships with leading international personal care brands and provides brand owners with naturally sourced products and ingredients such as marula, moringa, argan, avocado, baobab and other natural vegetable and essential oils.  Vegetable-origin and naturally-derived green and ethical ingredients are a frequent consumer demand in the beauty and personal care market.

“Earthoil presents us with an attractive opportunity to add a natural ingredient product portfolio that we can leverage across our growing customer base in the European and global natural beauty and personal care market,” said Nick Powell, Univar’s president of EMEA.  “Earthoil and Univar share a commitment to develop ethically and socially responsible ingredients for our customers as well as our key supplier partners.”

Richard Eyles, Earthoil general manager, commented “I’m really excited about this new chapter in the story of Earthoil. Over the last decade Earthoil has gained a justified reputation for supplying sustainable, organic oil ingredients for the personal care sector.  The synergistic combination of Univar’s global sales reach, distribution expertise and formulation laboratories, coupled with Earthoil’s expertise in sourcing its provenance-rich range of essential oils and vegetable oils, will benefit our valued customers.”