Agro Merchants Group has further boosted its international coldstorage portfolio with the acquisition of Spain’s Almacenes de Productos Congelados (APC), a company specialising in the temperature controlled logistics sector where it provides a comprehensive range of storage, handling and value-added services to manufacturers and retailers.
The deal, which also includes the purchase of Insofrisa and Zarantapec from the DRS Group, will add automated storage retrieval systems, automated picking, commodity expertise and new strategic locations to Agro Merchants.
The Iberian Peninsula is a key strategic focus for the company, which has embarked on a major expansion project at the Port of Algeciras that is due for completion in August 2016. The facility, along with APC and other future acquisitions, will allow the group to manage, develop and optimise customers’ supply chains, Agro Merchants said.
The company now owns and operates 53 facilities in eight countries across North America, Latin America and Europe, with more than 700,000m2 of coldstorage.
Carlos Rodriguez, president of Agro Merchants Group Europe said: “APC has a long-standing track record of providing large scale solutions to the ice cream and other market segments within the cold chain industry. APC’s infrastructure, IT systems and automation capabilities, together with a sound management team, enhances our position in the country to support existing and new customers.”
Claudio Mealli, chairman of the DRS Group said, “The Group has operated in Italy since 1971 and in Spain since 1987. We are proud of building our family business and serving customers for more than 40 years, and will continue with our Italian operations under the DRS Group brand. I look forward to collaborating with Agro Merchants, who are well positioned to develop APC further in the Spanish market.”
APC is a coldstorage leader in Spain, with two locations 25km and 30km north of Barcelona. The facilities sit on a total of 67,000m2 of land with expansion possibilities at both locations. It has a current capacity of 55,000 pallet positions.
Agro Merchants is focused on providing innovative cold chain solutions on a global basis by partnering with the highest quality family businesses and creating new, reliable, and integrated trade networks to help its customers grow. Agro invests in modern assets, industry-leading technologies, and value-added service offerings to ensure the highest quality supply chain management standards in the industry.
