News

Frutarom acquires Taura

Frutarom continues implementing its rapid growth strategy with an agreement to acquire Australian company Taura Natural Ingredients for $70 million. Taura was founded in 1973 as part of a New Zealand agricultural co-operative. Today Taura has evolved into a player in concentrated and texturised fruit ingredients, possessing manufacturing facilities in New Zealand and Belgium along […]

Frutarom continues implementing its rapid growth strategy with an agreement to acquire Australian company Taura Natural Ingredients for $70 million.

Taura was founded in 1973 as part of a New Zealand agricultural co-operative. Today Taura has evolved into a player in concentrated and texturised fruit ingredients, possessing manufacturing facilities in New Zealand and Belgium along with sales offices in the United States and in the UK, with an overall workforce totalling 130 employees.

Taura engages in the development, production and marketing of solutions through its Ultra Rapid Concentration (URC) technology for delivering natural fruit ingredients to a wide range of food products, particularly healthy snacks, breakfast cereals, confectionery, convenience foods and baked goods. Taura’s URC ingredients is said to raise the percentage of the final product’s fruit content, improve and enhance flavour and texture as well as lengthen shelf life using only natural ingredients for flavours, colours and preservatives – qualities benefiting from the rapidly growing trend toward healthier, more natural foods that are lower in sugar and calories.

Taura’s sales over the 12 months ending March 31, 2015 reached approximately $40 million. The company has a broad customer base that includes leading global and national food and beverage makers in the United States, the Asia-Pacific region and Europe.

“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 realization of its vision ‘to be the preferred partner for tasty and healthy success’,” said Ori Yehudai, President and CEO of Frutarom. “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 flavor 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.”

“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,” said Peter Dehasque, CEO of Taura. “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-fertilization and boost our highly specialized portfolio of innovative products further.”