Cognis B.V., a subsidiary of the Henkel Group, has entered the botanical extracts market with the acquisition of Spanish company Laboratorios Dr. Vinyals S.A. The Cognis Care Chemicals business sector - of which Nutrition & Health is a part - is a developer, supplier and marketer of natural antioxidants for nutritional supplements, food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic applications. The current Nutrition & Health portfolio consists of vitamin E, phytosterols, carotenoids and lutein esters. Cognis claims that all these substances are extracted from natural-source raw materials. The acquisition of Laboratorios Dr. Vinyals S.A., a specialist in botanical extracts, offers attractive development opportunities. The products of Laboratorios Dr. Vinyals include standardised dry extracts, purified extracts and pure products as well as a wide range of licorice derivatives. The Spanish company is headquartered in Barcelona and will assume the worldwide leadership for Cognis' Botanicals unit within the Nutrition & Health business. During the 2000 fiscal year, Laboratorios Dr. Vinyals recorded sales of approximately 12.5 million euros. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
