SINGAPORE – IMCD Benelux, a global distributor of specialty chemicals and foods, has won a top award for outstanding sales growth for the second year in a row. The yearly award, given out by U.S.-based Zeeospheres Ceramics LLC, recognizes the IMCD Group’s efforts in promoting Zeeospheres’ products in Europe and helping Zeeospheres expand its presence in Asia.

IMCD's win caps sales growth for Zeeospheres' products in Europe that recorded double-digit growth year-on-year against 2010. IMCD had record sales for Zeeospheres’ items in 2009 as well.

Zeeospheres, a spin-off from 3M, did not have a customer base in Europe and was not familiar enough with the market's potential when it took over 3M's commercial activities in Europe. So it was paramount that it partner with a distributor that was experienced and reliable on the continent. Worldwide, IMCD has a strong reputation as a valued supplier to the industrial coatings and building and construction markets.

“You and your team have exceeded our expectations,” said Hugh F. Caffery, Zeeospheres’ General Manager, in his address to Mark Vring, IMCD’s Strategic Account Manager for Zeeospheres. “IMCD has developed sales for our products faster than we had thought. To produce these results, it took your dedication and diligence to communicate the value of our products to the customers,” concluded Caffery.

Thanks to such success, Zeeospheres has now extended its exclusive distributorship contract with IMCD to Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia and New Zealand. To sharpen its service to clients even more, IMCD has been sending its Asia-Pacific staff for additional technical training, which is crucial, as IMCD will be representing an entirely new Zeeospheres product in this region.

Zeeospheres' new product is ceramic microspheres that are very fine yet very strong, hard and inert and are commonly used as spherical filler in such compounded polymeric materials as industrial coatings, powder coatings, primers, corrosion-resistant coatings, darker architectural coatings, polymeric grouts, putties, adhesives, trowel-applied flooring, other construction compounds, and other thermoset compounds and thermoplastics.

Besides the new Asia-Pacific market, IMCD also represents Zeeospheres in Europe, Russia, Turkey and South Africa.