R&R Ice Cream has acquired Eskigel S.r.l., a leading Italian own label ice cream manufacturer. The acquisition, said R&R CEO James Lambert, gives his company "an immediate and major presence in Europes largest ice cream market."
R&R has already strengthened its position in the UK, Germany and France, and with the new acquisition is aiming to do the same in Italy. R&R was formed in 2006 when America's Oaktree Capital Management merged two "R" ice cream companies, Richmond Foods of the UK and Roncadin of Germany.
The purchase price was about 77 million euros for Eskigel, which was founded in 1952 and has a modern and flexible plant at Terni, north of Rome. It had net sales in 2011 of 81 million euros. It is R&R's second acquisition in less than a year, the company having acquired another German ice cream maker, Durigon Gelato GmbH, last December.
