Frutarom Industries Ltd. announced that it has signed an agreement for the acquisition of the South African JannDeRee (Pty) Limited company for the sum of US$5.2 M. JannDeRee's sales turnover in 2012 came to approximately US$5 M. The transaction was completed at the time of signing.
JannDeRee, founded in 1993, develops, manufactures, and markets flavors with an emphasis on savory flavors and sweet flavor solutions. JannDeRee, which has been growing rapidly over the last few years, has an R&D, production and marketing site in Johannesburg, South Africa, located adjacent to Frutarom's South African site, and a wide customer base in South Africa and in other important emerging countries in the sub-Saharan region such as Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
JannDeRee's activities are synergetic with Frutarom's activities in South Africa in the field of flavors, which have grown at rates higher than the rate of market growth over the past few years. Frutarom has recently further strengthened its presence in African markets by adding additional sales personnel in key countries such as Nigeria.
Frutarom will take immediate actions to integrate activities, including integration of R&D, marketing and sales infrastructures, purchase, production and supply. JannDeRee's management, headed by its Managing Director, will become part of Frutarom's management in Africa, and they will act jointly to accelerate Frutarom's growth in the region.
According to Frutarom's President and Chief Executive Officer, Ori Yehudai: "The acquisition of JannDeRee continues the implementation of Frutarom's rapid and profitable growth strategy and the realization of its vision 'To be the preferred partner for tasty and healthy success.' The acquisition will substantially strengthen Frutarom's positioning in these fast growing regions of Africa. The acquisition contributes to the expansion of our product portfolio for countries in Africa, to the strengthening of our management, research and development, manufacturing, marketing and sales capacities in the area of savory flavors (an area where Frutarom has not yet been active in Africa)."
Yehudai concluded by stating: "We continue to seek out strategic acquisitions and to implement our rapid growth strategy combining profitable internal growth and acquisitions. Frutarom continues to accelerate its growth in both developed and emerging markets. We will continue to invest in the fast growing regions of Asia, Central and South America, Central and Eastern Europe and Africa, following a market share in emerging markets which has grown from 27% in 2010 to 36% in 2012."
