Agrana and RWA Juice Joint Venture Approved
The European Commission has given the green light to Austrian companies Agrana Group and RWA Raiffeisen Ware Austria (RWA) for the merger of their fruit juice concentrates subsidiaries Agrana Juice Holding and Ybbstaler Fruit Austria.
The newly founded joint venture, Ybbstale Agrana Juice, will have its head offices in Krollendorf, Lower Austria and will have 14 production sites, located in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Ukraine and China. Besides fruit juice concentrates, the joint venture will also produce fruit purees and natural flavourings as well as direct juices for use by the beverages industry. Annual sales revenues will be around Eur350 million and fully consolidated by Agrana.
“The merger of these companies is an important step to consolidate our position in the fruit juice concentrate market,” says Johann Marihart, chief executive of Agrana.
“The joint venture is a win-win constellation for Ybbstaler and Agrana Juice, and aims to further increase our competitiveness in increasingly global fruit juice concentrate markets,” adds Klaus Buchleitner, chief executive of RWA. The closing is planned for early June 2012.
