DSM reignites omega-3 Ropufa supply

At the time of the 2006 fire, DSM was one of several omega-3 suppliers with sales of $10-$15m per annum competing for increased market share behind runaway market leaders Ocean Nutrition Canada and EPAX. Omega-3 technology has advanced significantly, allowing a swathe of food and beverage launches that do not carry the taste and odour issues that were common previously. The company said its new facility would allow it to move to the forefront of those developments as in addition to providing greater volume capacity, the new plant allowed for higher quality oil production. DSM said it was now in possession of "​technically advanced set of Ropufa forms."​ It said Ropufa would continue targeting food supplements, foods and infant formulas. "DSM's Ropufa products are manufactured to meet the growing needs and requirements of our customers,"​ said Krijn Rietveld, senior vice president of the Nutrition Innovation Group at DSM Nutritional Products. "Our new production plant takes the leadership position to a new level." ​ DSM would not divulge how significantly the plant fire had affected its business, but did describe it as a "crisis". ​ ​The company switched production, which also included omega-6 oils, to its facility in Grenzach, Germany, three months after the fire June 2006 fire, but production did not return to previous levels. It decided at the time of the accident not to rebuild the Heanor, Derbyshire plant in preference of a relocation to Sisseln in Switzerland. The company would not reveal the motivation behind its relocation instead preferring to emphasise the production potential of its new facility and focus on its "market development plans and projected volumes over the coming years." "DSM Nutritional Products has fully recovered from the fire at the Ropufa plant in Heanor, UK, which had knocked out production and which gave DSM a supply crisis for the ROPUFA oils for more than one year,"​ the company said.