Azelis further develops Japanese market

Azelis, a major distributor of specialty chemicals, is working to develop the Japanese market further. In addition to major businesses the company has been engaged in Japan - home care & industrial cleaning, personal care, and chemicals, they intend to embark on several new sectors that allow them to exploit their advantages such as food, animal feed etc. When entering a new market, they have in view various types of partnership with Japanese specialized trading farms, including merger & acquisition, joint venture, and business alliance. Supplying cutting-edge materials from abroad and placing creation of new value as the core of their strategy, they "aim at trebling profits from the Japanese market by 2020", says Hirotaka Kawano, Managing Director of Azelis Japan.

Azelis, headquartered in Luxembourg, is a specialized trading firm of specialty chemicals. Characterized by marketing activities based on their technological capabilities, the company has set up 30 or more technical centers around the world to offer services, including formulation and analysis.

Azelis had been operating mainly in Europe until 2013, when they shifted the focus to Asia, a region with a promise of rapid growth. That year, local subsidiaries were founded in four Chinese cities and Tokyo. The Japanese subsidiary, Azelis Japan, started business next year as sales agency for the WeylChem Group in the country. In Japan, the company, earning revenues mainly from three sectors, home care & industrial cleaning, personal care, and chemicals, has seen its business expanding steadily for these three years, with a 30% increase in sales last year on a year-on-year basis. Japan, together with China, forms a critical market in Asia for Azelis.

The next move they aim to make in Japan is entry into new sectors. For quicker advances, they set great store by the strategy for partnership with Japanese specialized trading firms with know-how. They are considering M&A, joint venture, and business alliance as possible schemes.

Their global network will be mobilized to help Japanese manufacturer market their products overseas. As demonstrated by a business alliance Azelis formed last year with Showa Denko to sell their cosmetics materials in the European market, the company, having been accumulating business experience in Japan, intends to develop relationships with other makers.

Azelis also plans to move from, or enlarge, the current office, as it is too small to increase the personnel for implementing the growth strategy. In addition, the company is considering setting up a technical laboratory for themes they may find, through a careful research, which should meet needs in the Japanese market.

Written by Satoshi Kiyokawa.
Featured in Japan Chemical Daily. Read the original article here.