Frutarom Industries has agreed to acquire Australian fruit ingredients producer Taura Natural in a deal worth $70m.
Taura is a manufacturer of concentrated and texturised fruit ingredients with manufacturing facilities in New Zealand and Belgium, as well as sales offices in the US and UK. The company’s 12-month sales to the end of March amounted to approximately $40m, and the company has been purchased without debts and with holding cash of approximately $2.5m. The total value of the acquisition could rise by $3.5m, depending on the company’s performance during the next 12 months.
The acquisition will give Frutarom significant penetration into the Asia-Pacific region, especially Australia and New Zealand. Its seventh acquisition since the beginning of the year, the transaction also underlines the Israeli company’s plan to forge ahead with its aggressive strategy for growth.
The firm has previously acquired Spanish extracts producer Ingrenat and Peruvian company Montana, as well as a majority stake in Indian flavours producer Sonarome, for a combined value of more than $30m.
Frutarom Group president and CEO Ori Yehudai said: “The acquisition of Taura, a global leader in taste and fruit solutions, is the continuation of Frutarom’s implementation of its rapid growth strategy and the realisation of its vision ‘to be the preferred partner for tasty and healthy success.’ This acquisition continues to solidify Frutarom’s position as one of the world’s top companies in its field and reinforces its presence and standing as a leading global producer for natural flavoir and fruit solutions.
“The acquisition accelerates the growth of our activity in Asia-Pacific markets, with emphasis on Australia and New Zealand, while for the first time we will have R&D, sales and marketing platforms and a production site located in New Zealand. Taura has long-established relationships with leading customers in these countries that can serve as a springboard for offering them our full unique range of products. Frutarom will merge its sales platforms with Taura’s and together offer our customers throughout the world the full variety of Frutarom’s and of Taura’s innovative, unique and comprehensive capabilities and technologies in the fields of taste and health. The acquisition will also help strengthen Frutarom’s purchasing platform and abilities in natural raw materials, particularly fruit, in source countries.”
Taura Natural CEO Peter Dehasque added: “This strategic move represents a major milestone in fuelling Taura’s continued profitable growth into the high value, high growth segments of natural foods and nutritional snacks. Taura’s URC made, fruit-based building blocks have a strong complementary fit to Frutarom’s activities in natural flavours, fine ingredients and fruit solutions. We will significantly enhance our access to a whole raft of natural raw materials which can easily be integrated into our URC fruit-based materials, laying a solid foundation for leading edge innovation for years to come. Having access to Frutarom’s strong scientific and technological expertise will no doubt lead to cross-fertilisation and boost our highly specialised portfolio of innovative products further.”
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