Grading and filling tech company, BBC Technologies, has been wholly acquired by Tomra Food. This includes the company’s US arm, BBC Technologies USA.
BBC’s precision grading systems and punnet and clamshell filling solutions for blueberries and other small fruits will join Tomra Food’s technology portfolio, expanding their presence in New Zealand. This comes after Tomra acquired Compac in a US$49.5m buy out in 2017.
The acquisition includes BBC Tecnhologies’ Freshtracker software, which traces the origins and characteristics of products from harvest to point of sale.
“Following the recent, successful integration of Compac, we are investing more into small fruit and reduced footprint deployments,” said Mike Riley, head of Tomra Food.
“We are also making large-scale investments to create new value for customers by extracting and analysing data from Tomra equipment, which is complemented by the Freshtracker platform.”
BBC Technologies will operate as a division of Tomra Food and current head Geoff Furniss will continue to lead the company, reporting to Mike Riley at Tomra Food.
“As a company built by growers for growers, we respect Tomra’s market leadership, which has been achieved through innovation and partnership with customers, consistent with the principles that have fuelled our own growth at BBC Technologies,” said Furniss.
BBC Technologies was founded by New Zealand blueberry growers, Greg and Alison Furniss, in 2000 and is considered a global leader in turnkey solutions. The company operates a handful of offices throughout the world, which will be expanded through Tomra’s acquisition.
