STONEY CREEK, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bartek Ingredients Inc. recently completed a 4,000 ton/year capacity expansion for its malic and food-grade fumaric acid production facility, and today it announces the expansion of its leadership team, with the hiring of Jeff Billig as Vice President of Marketing & Business Development and Heinrich G. Schaefer as International Sales Director.
Bartek’s investment in both its team and facilities reinforces its position as the leader in malic and fumaric acid globally and aligns with its mission to facilitate growth and increase global reach to better serve existing customers and markets while opening up new ones.
Bartek’s addition of Billig and Schaefer lays the foundation for additional resource investment in the near future while rapidly increasing its sales and marketing presence, better supporting a global supply chain serving food, beverage, confectionery, pharmaceutical, animal nutrition, and industrial markets.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled about these additions to Bartek’s growing team,” Bartek CEO John Burrows said. “Both Jeff and Heinrich bring substantial industry experience and a breadth of skill sets that are critical in supporting Bartek as it continues to expand its presence as the global leader in malic and fumaric acid ingredients.”
Billig comes to Bartek with 30 years of experience in the food, pharmaceutical, and specialty chemical ingredient industries and a broad set of skills from a variety of marketing, business development, and general management roles. Over the last five years, he was the General Manager of Delavau Food Partners and was previously a Business Director at Ingredion for their polyol and dry dextrose product lines in North America. He is focused on growing sales, improving margins, and driving new growth opportunities for Bartek.
Based out of Bartek’s new German branch, Schaefer is augmenting Bartek with extensive international sales experience in the food ingredient and specialty industries. He most recently worked as the Global Sales Director for HYET Sweet, a high intensity sweetener supplier for the beverage, food, pharmaceutical, and confectionery industries. He also previously worked at Jungbunzlauer for 23 years, where he was responsible for overseeing the staffing and growth of its global sales team and extensive international distribution network, focused primarily on citric acid. At Bartek, he will help facilitate the company’s direct sales and distribution programs in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
Distributing to over 40 countries, Bartek ingredients impart desirable flavor and functionality in food, beverage, and candy applications; displace antibiotics in animal feed; provide versatile solutions for a wide range of industrial applications; and more. Bartek is increasing its research and development efforts in 2019 as well, heralded by the promotion of Milad Moshfeghian to Vice President of New Product Development.
TorQuest Partners acquired Bartek in October 2018 and is investing substantial capital in improvement and expansion projects to embody the company’s continued commitment to its customers worldwide. In addition to capacity expansion, projects scheduled for completion in 2019 include state-of-the-art upgrades to Bartek’s laboratories and office facilities.
For more information about Bartek and its products, visit bartek.ca.
About Bartek Ingredients
Established in 1969, Bartek Ingredients Inc. is a leading producer of malic acid, fumaric acid, and maleic anhydride. Headquartered in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada, Bartek employs 120 people across its two production facilities in Southern Ontario. Bartek’s facilities are registered to the ISO 9001:2015 Standard. Bartek also holds the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety certification, and it distributes to more than 40 countries around the world. For more information about Bartek, visit bartek.ca/.
About TorQuest Partners
Founded in 2002, TorQuest Partners is a Canadian-based manager of private equity funds. With more than C$2 billion of equity capital under management, TorQuest invests in middle market companies and works in close partnership with management to build value. To learn more about TorQuest Partners, visit torquest.com/.
