Leading Italian dairy and milk group Granarolo has acquired a 60 per cent stake in organic food and vegetable producer Conbio.
The deal enables Granarolo to further increase its strength in the vegetable products market, which grew 240 per cent over the past five years, going from €130 million in 2010 to €318 million in 2015. The market is expected to continue to grow, reaching as much as €600 million by 2020.
Last year, Granarolo launched the “100% Vegetale” range, which achieved a turnover of over €14 million.
Conbio is the fourth largest Italian company in the vegetable-based food market for refrigerated goods, with turnover of almost €12 million in 2015.
The company is a leader in Italy in R&D, with products like spreading creams, burgers, seitan, tofu and tempeh based foods, “ragù” (bolognese sauce), soups and ready-made dishes, all entirely vegetable-based and organic.
Source: European Supermarket Magazine
Nestle SA has accelerated its product development process by 60% since 2016, according to the company. The faster speed to market has been achieved through a restructuring of its research and development process. Now the company is investing in various forms of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to further improve its R&D process and generate better results.
German chemicals distributor Brenntag has confirmed potential takeover talks with US rival Univar Solutions and is understood to be debating the feasibility of a potential acquisition in the coming months. Univar Solutions confirms that it has received a preliminary indication of interest from Brenntag regarding a potential transaction.
Cargill has announced the acquisition of Owensboro Grain Company, a soybean processing facility and refinery located in Kentucky. The purchase of the Owensboro-based company will support Cargill’s efforts to “modernise and increase capacity across its North American oilseeds network to support growing demand for oilseeds driven by food, feed and renewable fuel markets”.
