Ocean Nutrition Canada Announces New Asia-Pacific Organization

20/11/06 Ocean Nutrition Canada Limited (ONC), supplier of MEG-3 brand Omega-3 EPA/DHA dietary supplement and food ingredients, has expanded their presence in the Asian market. Kevin Krail has been appointed as General Manager of the new Asia-Pacific region. He will report directly to Ian Lucas, Executive Vice-President of Global Sales and Marketing at Ocean Nutrition Canada.

Krail's responsibilities have been expanded to include all of Asia and India, in addition to Australia and New Zealand. He will maintain his regional office in Sydney, Australia.

Dr. Carl Zhu has been hired to take on the role of Sales Manager for China. Zhu has a Ph.D. in Food Science from Northeast Agriculture University, Harbin, China. Zhu’s background is primarily in the dairy industry and he brings a wealth of technical and sales experience working with all of the major Chinese dairies. His responsibilities will include the oversight and management of both the Dietary Supplement Ingredient (DS) and Healthy Food Ingredient (HFI) businesses in China. Dr. Zhu will be based in Vancouver, Canada.

The ONC Asia-Pacific Team will also include Jingkai Shen. Shen is currently based in Taiwan and takes on the role of Business Development Manager- Asia. He will provide local leadership in Taiwan and Korea as well as business development support to existing businesses in the region. Shen will also be responsible for developing new business opportunities in the North Asia market for MEG-3 healthy food ingredients.

Robert Orr, President and CEO at ONC, said, "Over the last two years we have built a sizeable business throughout the Asia-Pacific region for our MEG-3 fish oils and healthy food ingredients. We believe that our Asian customers will be better served with a team approach under Kevin’s guidance. Having a local presence throughout the region ensures that all customers receive our traditional ONC value-added service in a timely fashion."

Ian Lucas, EVP of Global Sales and Marketing at ONC, believes the region can provide tremendous growth for ONC. "Australians and New Zealanders are among the healthiest people in the world and the entire region has a very high awareness of Omega-3 health benefits. The Asian markets, in particular, are very conscious of the specific brain health benefit of DHA, one of the Omega-3 fatty acids that is essential to brain development in children." Lucas added that ONC plans to open a sales/marketing office in Shanghai in 2007.