Capespan Group has continued its recent burst of acquisitions with the addition of a new packhouse and a sizeable apple and pear farm.
Novo packhouse, the state-of-the-art topfruit packing facility opened in Paarl in the Western Cape in 2009, was previously owned by Colors Fruit and will allow its new owner to handle fruit from farms in nearby areas Ceres, Villiersdorp, Piketberg, Grabouw and Boland.
According to Capespan, the centre is already equipped with modern packing technology and can pack up to 120,000 bins a year.
The acquisition of Theewaterskloof Estate, meanwhile, a farm in Villiersdorp with 300ha of apples, pears and plums under production, will add to the 110ha already earmarked for expansion at Capespan’s other topfruit farm, Applethwaite in Elgin.
As a result, Capespan’s combined topfruit production is set to reach more than 630ha within the next three years.
Tonie Fuchs, chief executive of Capespan Farms, described the acquisitions as integral to the group’s plan to grow its primary production unit and indicated that both Novo and Theewaterskloof would create “significant synergies” across Capespan’s global fruit procurement operation.
“Novo packhouse entrenches Capespan’s access to the downstream value chain which will ensure better service delivery and a more efficient and cost-effective route to market for its customers,” Fuchs commented.
“It enjoys an established customer base and will be operated by Capespan as the first choice packing facility for growers in its service area.”
Johan Dique, managing director of Capespan Group, said the two additions were part of a continued effort to provider customers with a broader, more efficient fresh produce supply by making strategic acquisitions not only in production but also in distribution and service.
“Following these acquisitions and current developments, Capespan Group will own and control more than two thousand hectares in Southern African [topfruit], citrus and grape production, supplying fresh produce to customers spread across the globe,” he said.
“Capespan’s own production is strategically positioned specifically to enhance our group’s service and product offering to all our third-party growers and our retail customers. We enhance and add to our third-party grower product basket through Capespan’s own production in order to ensure a sustainable 12-month supply of quality fresh produce.”
Growth strategy
Only yesterday, it announced it had rebranded South African logistics operator Aspen – in which it purchased a 75 per cent stake last September – as Contour Logistics.
The acquisition of Aspen came in the same month as its wholly owned Asian subsidiary Metspan took a 25 per cent stake in Good View Group, a distributor of fresh fruit and vegetables in Hong Kong and Macau.
Just a few weeks later, it joined Nese Coruk and Metehan Aslantas in forming Mayfresh, a new joint venture company in Turkey supplying and sourcing fresh fruit and vegetables in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions.
And earlier this month, it announced that it has bought a 25 per cent stake in Fruchtimport vanWylick, a leading German fresh produce distributor and ripener.
Speaking recently in an exclusive interview with eurofruit, Dique said the strategic acquisitions were part of an overall strategic shift aimed at turning what was an export-focused supplier into a more international procurement, logistics, marketing and merchandising specialist.
“This [has] opened up new opportunities in our fruit division, our farming activities, international procurement and logistics,” he explained.
