Batory Foods announced that it acquired the assets of Minneapolis-based Polypro International, Inc., one of the largest distributors of hydrocolloids in the United States and the Americas. Batory Foods is a distributor of commodity and specialty food ingredients. With the addition of the Polypro business, Batory is positioned to become the largest distributor of clean label texturants in the United States.
Batory Foods president Ron Friedman said, “Polypro’s Mark Kieper—and his Dad before him—built a wonderful organization. Their customer service is outstanding and their supplier relationships are top-tier. These are big commercial shoes to fill.”
Polypro has been in business for 37 years and is a prominent supplier of Procol® food grade guar gum, which is used as a thickening, stabilizing, suspending and binding agent. Batory will take over as the exclusive distributor of Procol® in the United States and Canada.
Polypro owner and president Mark Kieper said, “Polypro’s relationship with Batory spans more than 20 successful years. Batory is the natural choice to manage the Procol brand going forward and can offer our long-standing customers thousands of other ingredients to go along with Procol Guar Gum.”
Kieper intends to focus Polypro’s commercial efforts on non-food grade guar gum applications through Rantec Corporation, a Polypro sister company. Batory will provide technical sales and service for all food grade business and refer any non-food grade inquiries to Rantec.
Hector Lopez, vp of project management for Batory said, “Polypro has a wonderful culture. The whole team is very customer focused. We think the Polypro folks will fit right in here.”
Starting Monday, Dec. 9, the Polypro Team will begin working with their customers to shift ordering to Batory Foods.
