CHICAGO, Aug. 21, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- PureCircle (LSE: PURE), the world's leading producer and innovator of stevia sweeteners, announces the appointment of Stéphane Ducroux as Chief Commercial Officer effective August 16, 2018. Ducroux will oversee PureCircle's: Sales; Marketing; Technical & Innovation; and Scientific & Regulatory Affairs.
Ducroux will report to PureCircle CEO Maga Malsagov. He will be based in PureCircle's Chicago headquarters. The appointment of Ducroux enhances the company's already strong management team. In this new position, he will help further accelerate PureCircle's growth, as the company continues to increase sales of, and expand production capacity of, its great-tasting stevia sweeteners such as Reb M, and other stevia ingredients.
Ducroux has 20 years of management experience in the natural specialty ingredients industry. He has expertise in commercial operations, business development and acquisitions. He previously had a long career at Naturex, during which time the company grew strongly. His last job at Naturex was COO Americas and Asia-Pacific.
Commenting on this appointment, PureCircle CEO Maga Malsagov said:
"Stéphane is a proven leader. We expect the integrated management of several of our company's functions under his leadership to help further accelerate our growth. We welcome him to PureCircle."
PureCircle sells a broad line of great-tasting, plant-based, zero-calorie stevia sweeteners and other stevia ingredients. PureCircle is playing a key supply role for beverage and food companies, as they seek to offer their consumers more low- and zero-calorie products.
PureCircle recently announced advances which enable it to supply significantly more Reb M to global beverage and food companies. PureCircle produces Reb M both directly from its Starleaf™ stevia plants and also from other stevia sweeteners in the plant. In the latter case, PureCircle starts with purified stevia leaf extract with low Reb M content and by adding an enzyme, the maturation to Reb M is completed, just as the leaf does naturally. Enzymes play a similar role in various products including baby food, cheese, other dairy products and chocolate. PureCircle estimates that, depending on amounts purchased and various terms of purchase, companies buying Reb M from PureCircle will find the cost of using it to sweeten a beverage or food, equivalent to their cost of using sugar to achieve the same level of sweetening.
As the result of ongoing innovation, research and development work with stevia, PureCircle has been granted more than 100 stevia-related patents. These patents – plus more than 250 patents pending and other strong intellectual property -- are directed to a wide range of stevia-related products and processes.
For more information on PureCircle, please see: www.purecircle.com
