Lonza announced the acquisition last month.

Prior to the buyout, Zelam was a privately owned New Zealand company, founded in the late 1980s, and focused on development and manufacture of crop and wood protection products.

Lonza has more than 40 manufacturing and R&D facilities with approximately 9800 employees world wide.

“We see this acquisition as an excellent opportunity to further our growth strategy for Agro Ingredients by providing entry into new strategic markets and products that are complementary to our existing Meta business,” says chief strategic officer Sven Abend.

“It also allows Lonza to leverage Zelam’s existing agrochemical business for registration and sales into other global regions, particularly the United States, EU and South America.

“Zelam’s unique formulated products and patented delivery systems will benefit both the agro ingredients and wood protection

markets.”

Zelam develops and owns patented chemistry and delivery technologies for pastoral crops and glueline treatment of engineered

wood.

The company has 45 employees including a seasoned management team and experienced R&D team with highly skilled researchers and formulation chemists, as well as sales and technical people with strong industry experience.

The company describes its manufacturing facilities as world class and say these include NZ’s first micro-encapsulation plant, pollen tube growth testing, and glueline treatment of engineered wood products.

Additionally, product brand names like Tag G2, Vixen, Taratek and Permatek are widely known in NZ, it says.