Double the profit for Frutarom
in the first nine months of the year after bolt-on acquisitions
brought rapid growth to a company that has clear ambitions to
become one of the top ten flavour firms.
The Tel Aviv-based maker of flavours for food and functional food industries reports that profit grew to $5 million (€3.8m) for the third quarter, compared to $2.3 million for the same period in 2003.
Recent acquisitions have significantly benefited the Frutarom results. In the first three quarters of the year the firm closed on a €3.5 million deal to buy International Flavours & Fragrances, the number two global flavours player with €1.54 billion in estimated sales, business activities in France.
The agreement completed the €30 million acquisition of IFF's fruit preparation operations in Germany and Switzerland cleared in August this year.
"Completing this acquisition is another significant milestone and brings Frutarom closer to its target: to achieve sales revenues of US$300 million (€234m) and become one of the ten largest multinationals in the flavour and fragrance industry," said Ori Yehudai, president of the Frutarom group, at the time of the IFF unit purchase.
Buying into IFF's fruit and vegetable extract business gives Frutarom a firm foothold in the growing natural ingredients market. Growth in the fruit and vegetable extracts market has risen in parallel to the burgeoning functional food trend, itself driven by the consumer's desire to improve health and prevent disease through food and beverage consumption.
The €819.9 million European and US fruit and vegetable extracts and powders market is on course to grow 4.5 per cent annually, reaching €1.07 billion by 2009, estimate market analysts Frost & Sullivan.
"The IFF unit purchase perfectly complements are existing activities in flavours and botanical extracts, making us a 'one-stop shop' and providing full solutions for our customers,"Yehudai recently told FoodNavigator.com.
Looking ahead the CEO added that there are more acquisitions for the public-traded Frutarom in the pipeline, but none are planned for 2004.
Sales for Frutarom in the third quarter totalled $51.4 million (39.7 million euros), a 21.2 per cent rise on the same period in 2003.
