Mane opens joint venture facility in Saudi Arabia
Mane is ranked as the world’s sixth largest flavour and fragrance company, according to Leffingwell and Associates, with estimated 2010 sales of € 480.1 €. It has an industrial network made up of more than 20 sites across four continents, including locations in the United States, Japan, Mexico, Brazil and France.
Mane’s approach to the Saudi market has been to enter into a joint venture with the Banawi Industrial Group (BIG) to establish Banawi MANE Flavors (Lazeez) for the conception, application, production and sale of food flavours.
Mane is a family-owned, private company and neither the investment by each partner nor the ownership shares have been disclosed.
The deal is said to “combine BIG’s regional presence with MANE’s flavor expertise to deliver optimal service to our customers in the food and bevirage industry across the Middle East”.
It is particularly targeting local and regional food manufacturers.
Taste preferences
The new facility of the joint venture, located in Jeddah Industrial City Phase 2, was inaugurated in early March. It is said by Mane to be the first of a global flavour and fragrance company in Saudi Arabia.
Other firms in the top ten have physical entities in other Middle Eastern countries however. For instance, Givaudan has two sales offices in the United Arab Emirates and one each in Iran and Turkey, as well as flavour creation and production facilities in Egypt.
IFF has sales offices in Dubai and Israel, and manufacturing facilities in Israel; Symrise has branches in Dubai and Egypt; and Firmenich has a subsidiary in Dubai.
It houses a production unit with liquid and powder compounding equipment, and a creation centre with four application laboratories. The emphasis is on developing flavours “that truly capture the unique taste preferences of Middle Eastern consumers for all categories of products, from snacks to beverages, including confectionery, dairy and savoury applications.”
