By Liz White, UT staffDistrbutor IMCD Group of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, has bought Brian Jones and Associates Ltd of Hertford, UK. BJA is "a well established distributor in the UK and Ireland for speciality raw materials for the polyurethane sectors and several other markets," said an IMCD statement on the purchase. "This is a further extension of the IMCD network enabling us to improve our local and pan European services to our supplier and customers, " said Pieter van der Slikke, ceo of IMCD Group, in the company statement. BJA will be a subsidiary of IMCD's UK operating company Honeywill and Stein Ltd, based in Sutton, Surrey. Rotterdam-headquartered IMCD is a network of companies which market, sell and distribute speciality chemicals and food ingredients. The group has Euro 600 million turnover and 650 staff. It has warehouse across Europe and also in Australia and New Zealand. As well as chemicals and ingredients the group says it also offers "marketing expertise and field-based technical sales representation for many of the leading international producers." For over 20 years, BJA has served the UK and Ireland market with materials for polyurethane coatings, adhesives, sealants, elastomers, encapsulants, rigid and moulded foams, using two warehouses in the North West. The firm has supplied materials from major producers such as Bayer MaterialScience, Lyondell, Air Products, Solvay, Invista, Shepherd Chemical and Stepan. "