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Amsterdam, The Netherlands September 11, 2002 Univar N.V. ("Univar") (Euronext Amsterdam: UNIVR) a leading international chemical distributor, announces that it has acquired the assets of Canadian specialty chemical distributor, Stochem Inc., of Toronto, Canada. Stochem reported sales for 2001 of USD$ 41 million.

The company is a specialty chemical market leader in Canada, serving key markets such as coatings, inks and adhesives, plastics and rubber, building products, lubricants, food and pharmaceutical.

Stochem will be incorporated into the Univar Canada Ltd. business organization, but will continue to operate as a separate business unit within the Canadian structure. According to Larry Bullock, President, Univar Canada Ltd., "The acquisition of Stochem represents a significant growth opportunity for our Canadian business, as we will be adding their product lines throughout our entire Canadian distribution network."

Profile Univar Univar is the leading independent chemical distributor in the world (in terms of revenue). Univar is engaged in the chemical distribution business throughout both North America and Europe. Univar purchases a vast array of commodity products in bulk quantities, processes these, repackages them in appropriate quantities and then sells and delivers them to some 250,000 industrial end-users. In addition, Univar provides a number of related services to its customers, such as blending of chemicals, managing customer inventories, providing technical support and packaging and labelling. Univar operates a network of 195 distribution centres, spread across the United States, Canada and 14 European countries. In 2001, Univar generated net sales of EUR 4.8 billion and group operating income (including income from equity participations) of EUR 81.6 million. Univar has approximately 7,000 employees based throughout North America and Europe. The company is headquartered in The Netherlands, with North American offices in Bellevue, Washington. For more information, visit: www.univarcorp.com

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