The sale is Frutarom’s tenth acquisition this year.
Nutrafur, which specialises in the R&D, manufacture, marketing and sales of natural plant extracts including rosemary, olive and citrus, recorded sales of €11.7 million ($13 m) for the twelve-month period ending June 2015.
Its activity is particularly focussed on antioxidants for food preservation, protection and extended shelf life.
“Active antioxidant ingredients constitute an important supporting product for food manufacturers, and Frutarom will integrate these specialty ingredients into the comprehensive portfolio of products and solutions offered to its many customers in the savoury field as well,” Frutarom said.
Frutarom said that Nutrafur, based in Murcia in Spain, had impressive R&D technologies and a plant with a large production capacity and significant potential for future expansion.
Frutarom president and CEO Ori Yehudai said: “The acquisition of Nutrafur fits in well with our rapid and profitable growth strategy while deepening and expanding Frutarom's activity in the growing field of natural plant extracts and antioxidants for food products.”
He added that the company had its sights set on yet more acquisitions for the future, which would help the company hit a recently set target of achieving sales of at least $1.5 billion (€1.35 bn) by the year 2020.
“We will continue implementing our rapid growth strategy which is based on combining profitable internal growth with strategic acquisitions in order to achieve the goals we recently set for ourselves: sales reaching at least US$ 1.5 billion with an EBITDA margin of over 22% for our core activities by the year 2020," Yehudai said.
Nutrafur’s production site is situated close to Ingrenat, which Frutarom acquired earlier this year. This geographical proximity would allow for a maximum operational flexibility in terms of sharing extraction facilities and manufacturing systems, thus reducing costs, it said.
Frutarom sells over 43,000 flavour and specialty ingredient products in more than 150 countries worldwide.