Grupo Alimentario Citrus (GAC) has acquired two facilities producing ready-to-eat salads from French cooperative group Agrial as part of its ongoing international expansion strategy.
The first, Josef Muller, is located near Zurich in Switzerland and employs 130 people, while the second, Novara Salads, is close to Milan and has 44 employees.
Both companies specialise in the production of fresh produce and ready-to-eat salads and supply supermarkets, foodservice and Horeca customers in their respective markets.
The company said the deal formed part of the growth and internationalisation plan that it launched in 2015, and added to the acquisition of Germany’s Thurländer last October.
“We want to become the first choice for consumers when it comes to fresh, healthy produce and with this acquisition we can take our innovative capacity and our assortment to new markets and new consumers”,explainedRafael Boix, GAC’s general manager.
“The new plants in Switzerland and Italy represent a milestone in our international growth plan and strengthen us in order to carry on growing even more sustainably”.
GAC said it the facilities would continue to produce for theSwiss and Italian markets and that current jobs would be protected.
“We are going to work hard to make the most of the enormous potential that both the Swiss and Italian plants have, with their modern facilities and excellent locations”, Boix stated.
“It's all about bringing projects together: we'll drive both centres forward in terms of innovation, taking advantage of the immense knowledge of the local markets and their consumers, both teams have, to carry on growing side by side.”
The latest acquisitions bring the total number of ready-to-eat processing plants owned by GAC to seven, four of which are in Spain and the other in Germany.
