Nutreco announced today that has acquired a 51% shareholding in a Brazilian animal nutrition and fish feed company. The activities will be continued in a new joint venture named 'Fri-Ribe' providing Nutreco and its partners, the existing owners, with a platform for jointly building a strong position in one of the most important agriculture growth markets in the world.

 

The company to be acquired is active in the production and sales of premixes, farm minerals, compound feed, horse feed, pet food and fish feed. It consists of two privately owned companies Fri-Ribe and Dispa that operate under the umbrella brand of Fri-Ribe. They are an important player in Brazil for shrimp and tilapia fish feed and also have important regional market positions in nutrition for beef cattle, dairy cattle and for horse feed. The companies have five production plants and six sales offices spread across the centre and north-east of Brazil. The companies have 400 employees and annual revenues amounted to EUR 47 million in 2008.

 

Frank Tielens, Nutreco's Executive Vice-President Specialties: "This acquisition perfectly fits in our growth strategy to further strengthen our global market positions in feed specialties and fish feed. Fri-Ribe's strong management, dedicated people and distribution network offers Nutreco an excellent opportunity for a long-term partnership and brings substantial scope for cross-selling Nutreco's feed specialties. The joint venture also clearly demonstrates our commitment to grow our business in markets with a perspective of structural profitable growth. The animal nutrition market in Brazil is growing at approximately 5% a year on average and this acquisition brings Nutreco an excellent platform to facilitate its expansion in Brazil."

 

Nutreco's strategy is to expand its global market positions in feed specialties and fish feed in growth markets and to strengthen its leading compound feed market positions in Canada, the Netherlands and Spain. Since 2006 Nutreco has acquired animal nutrition and fish feed businesses in Canada, China Czech Republic, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, United Kingdom and the USA.

 

 

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Nutreco
Nutreco is a global leader in animal nutrition and fish feed. Our advanced feed solutions are at the origin of food for millions of consumers worldwide. Quality, innovation and sustainability are guiding principles, embedded in the Nutreco culture from research and raw material procurement to products and services for agriculture and aquaculture. Experience across 100 years brings Nutreco a rich heritage of knowledge and experience for building its future. Nutreco employs almost 9,300 people in 30 countries, with sales in 80 countries. Nutreco is listed on the Euronext stock exchange in Amsterdam and with annual revenues of EUR 4.9 billion in 2008.

 

 

Jurgen Pullens, Director Investor Relations and Corporate Communications Nutreco

Telephone:             +31 33 422 6134

Mobile:                   +31 6 5159 9483
E-mail:                   jurgen.pullens@nutreco.com