News

Frutarom makes further acquisitions

13 Jan 2016

Frutarom has made its second and third acquisitions of the year already with the purchase of US company Grow for $20 million. Frutarom also acquired 75% of the share capital of the Polish savoury flavour solutions company AMCO.

Frutarom has made its second and third acquisitions of the year already with the purchase of US company Grow for $20 million. Frutarom also acquired 75% of the share capital of the Polish company AMCO who specialise in savoury flavour solutions.

Founded in 1977, Grow is said to have unique biotechnological production methods for producing natural nutritious ingredients with healthy qualities that are scientifically-proven and backed up by clinical studies. Among its customers are leading dietary supplement, natural remedy, functional foods, cosmetic and flavours companies.

Grow has an R&D and marketing centre and production site in New Jersey.

"Over the past two years Frutarom has taken a major strategic step in strengthening its position as a leading global manufacturer of specialty fine ingredients,” said Ori Yehudai, President and CEO of Frutarom. “We bought up Montana Food in Peru and Vitiva in Slovenia along with Nutrafur and Ingrenat in Spain, companies engaged among other things in natural plant extracts and natural colours, as well as CitraSource and the activities of Scandia, both in the US, which specialize in natural citrus-based specialty ingredients. Last week we announced our investing in Algalo which focuses on cultivating algae from which it produces advanced products using its own unique biotechnological techniques. The acquisition of Grow blends in well with our rapid and profitable growth strategy, deepening and expanding Frutarom's activity in the growing field of natural specialty dietary supplements and the use of unique technologies in their manufacture. We will continue investing in significantly expanding our global activity in this important and growing field, both through strategic acquisitions and by collaborating with universities, research institutes and startup companies for developing innovative natural ingredients.”

"The acquisition of Grow brings to Frutarom advanced R&D capabilities as well as some major customers," continued Yehudai. "Thanks to Frutarom's proven experience in successfully carrying out acquisitions and realizing the synergies arising from combining the acquired activity with Frutarom's activity and the many cross-selling opportunities, we are convinced this acquisition too will contribute towards Frutarom's continuing rapid and profitable growth and generate high value for our customers, employees and investors."

"The acquisition of Grow is our 29th acquisition in the past five years and carries on the implementation of our rapid and profitable growth strategy combining internal growth, above the rates of growth in the markets where we operate, with strategic acquisitions," Yehudai said in conclusion. "We have an excellent pipeline of future acquisitions which will contribute, along with continued reinforcement of our market leadership in joining together the worlds of natural flavors and health, towards achieving the goals we recently set out: USD 2 billion in sales by 2020 along with an EBITDA margin of over 22% in our core activities."