Oxford Nutrascience in exclusive Omega-3 chews collaboration for Europe with Ocean Nutrition

Oxford Nutrascience (LON:ONG) has agreed the terms of a collaboration with the world's largest supplier of Omega-3 EPA/DHA ingredients, Ocean Nutrition Canada Ltd (ONC). Through a 5-year deal, ONC will exclusively supply its MEG-3 branded Omega-3 ingredients for use across the European Union in Oxford Nutrascience's confectionery chews. 

Furthermore, the companies have also agreed to work closely together to cross-sell each other's products to their own customer bases. “[The] collaboration agreement will provide Oxford Nutrascience access to many of the largest food and supplement manufacturers who use ONC's MEG-3 ingredient in their products. This will create a significant marketing opportunity for Oxford Nutrascience to fully exploit its chew technology”, Oxford Nutrascience stated.

Oxford Nutrascience emphasised that ONC is the world’s foremost producer of Omega-3 EPA/DHA from fish oil, and some of its products are the first and only fish oils to achieve United States Pharmacopeia dietary supplement ingredient verification.
Oxford Nutrascience’s soft chew technology uses soluble fibre to allowing functional ingredients, such as vitamins and minerals, to be added without compromising taste, texture and stability. Oxford Nutrascience has also developed a cranberry supplement chew and both chews will be available to consumers during the second half of 2010.

"Having access to the customer base of the world's largest and foremost producer of Omega-3 shows the level of trust Ocean Nutrition Canada has in our chew technology. Being able to reach the major producers of Omega-3 products is a very significant marketing opportunity for Oxford Nutrascience”, Oxford Nutrascience chief executive Nigel Theobald said.

According to Oxford Nutrascience, ONC's MEG-3 powder has a unique molecular construction that locks in the health benefits of Omega-3 and locks out even the slightest taste of fish. It is generally believed that fish oil has a number of health benefits, including in brain and eye development in infants and cardiovascular benefits in adults.

“Together with our manufacturing partner Lamy Lutti, Oxford Nutrascience has already attracted some of the leading companies in the supplement industry having demonstrated our capability to develop and mass produce new, high quality chew supplements. We look forward to the launch of both our new chews to the food supplements market and directly to our own and Ocean Nutrition's customers later this year,” Theobald added.

The products will be promoted as part of the group's own product range and are also being made available to other over-the-counter (OTC) consumer healthcare companies seeking to use Oxford Nutrascience's confectionery technology. 

In terms of the scale of the addressable market, Oxford Nutrascience highlighted the findings of Market researcher Nielsen, stating “Omega-3 products have bucked the recession to record 42 percent growth during 2009 in the US, as consumer interest in healthy eating grows”. Additionally, based on information from Packaged Facts (2009), “Omega-3 enriched foods and beverages have entered an explosive growth phase in the global retail market”, and forecasts Omega-3 sales to be worth about US$7 billion by 2011."