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AUSTRIA: Agrana-Ybbstaler joint venture approved

(beveragemanager.net) - The EU Commission granted Agrana and RWA the green light for the merger of their fruit juice concentrates subsidiaries Agrana Juice Holding and Ybbstaler Fruit Austria to form a joint venture.

The newly founded joint venture, Ybbstaler Agrana Juice, will have its head offices in Austria and will have 14 production sites, located in 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 €350m and fully consolidated by Agranda.

“The merger of these companies is an important step to consolidate our position in the fruit juice concentrate market,” says Johann Marihart, CEO of Agrana.

In the fruit segment, Agrana is a global producer of fruit preparations for the dairy industry and one of the leading producers of fruit juice concentrates in Europe. With approximately 8,000 personnel at 53 production facilities in 26 countries, the company generates global revenues of over €2bn. (bmg)