Germany’s Stockmeier Group has acquired the industrial chemicals division of Spanish distributor Indukern as of Mar. 1 for an undisclosed amount. The business has been taken over by newly founded division Stockmeier Quimica.

Indukern belonged both to the Barcelona-based Indukern Group and the Diaz-Varela family. The industrial chemicals business, which was one of five divisions, has sales of €50 million and 70 employees.

Daniel Diaz-Varela, Indukern’s managing director, said the company decided to sell the industrial chemicals business as it longer considered it to be a strategic part of the company and it did not have enough synergies with the other divisions.

Maintaining this division and not developing all its potential would have been a mistake, he said. “Our goal is to focus in another priority areas, as flavors & fragrances or food ingredients for example, which have grown most lately.”

Stockmeier will take over Indukern’s warehouses in Barcelona and Valencia, continuing to run them as transshipment points for inorganic and organic products and specialty chemicals.

“We want to be among the top three chemical distributors in Europe. With this acquisition we have taken another big step in this direction," said Matthias Mirbach, managing director of Stockmeier Holding.  "We will now further expand our business in Spain and exploit the synergies between our various companies in Europe.”

In June 2018, Stockmeier was ranked thirteenth globally and sixth in Europe, with 2017 sales of €1.03 billion.  

On Jan. 1, 2017, the company acquired a stake in Austria’s HDS-Chemie, boosting its business in Central and Eastern Europe. It also recently opened a new sales office in Hungary.