Yesterday, Frutura announced the acquisition of Colombia-headquartered Montana Fruits, a significant local packer/shipper/marketer of avocados sourced from growers across Colombia.
Strengthening LATAM footprint
Although Frutura has been successfully sourcing Colombia's high-quality avocados from a variety of suppliers, it was eager to consolidate its avocado sources to add consistency of supply. "It's our goal to get ever closer to providing our customers with '365 days a year' of the fruit they desire," says David Krause, Frutura's CEO. "We knew it would serve our customers to have our own operation in Colombia that would guarantee the right quality at the right time."
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Acquisition formula
"We have a proven formula when we make an acquisition," added Krause. "We work with in-country management to add value and optimize their enterprise. Then we drive growth by facilitating collaboration between the companies in our platform. And lastly, which is the case with the Montana deal, we see what needs to be added to Frutura supply so a priority crop such as avocados can become a 365-day-a-year asset to our customers. We're actually ahead of plan with table grapes, citrus and berries. Avocados are our next big push."
The Montana Fruits acquisition ticks all the boxes Krause just mentioned and for these reasons, he feels the company is an excellent addition to the Frutura family. "It's a family-run operation helmed by a dynamic brother-sister team who are highly motivated and appropriately aggressive about progress," he said. Frutura itself is a young company and the addition of the nimble, smart people of Montana makes this an excellent fit. "We have demand. They have capacity. These are the kind of deals I'm looking to do and I feel grateful when they happen." Montana already sources fruit for Frutura companies, so this acquisition serves to solidify strong existing relationships.
Export growth
While the acquisition will add greater discipline and customer assurance to the global supply chain, it will also at least treble Frutura's avocado volume from Colombia. "The country is an important, emerging global market in avocados and we feel incredibly blessed to have identified and brought such a high-potential company into the Frutura family," Krause shared. Following this acquisition, Frutura expects to significantly increase its avocado export volume. "Most of our customers are currently based in the U.S. and the European Union and we plan to increase volume to both continents in a meaningful way," Krause said. "Montana is an exponential add for us."
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Frutura avocado brand
This acquisition strengthens Frutura's footprint in Latin America, which is vital to its international strategy. The company's bench strength in avocados is built on the foundation of Dayka & Hackett (U.S.) – who will manage the integration of Montana Fruits – as well as Agrícola don Ricardo (Peru) and Subsole's (Chile) avocado acreage. Going forward, the plan is to transition to have all avocados packed under the Frutura brand.
In 2022, Frutura signaled their bullish intent from these three companies around avocados by hiring respected sector leader Stephen Fink to drive that effort. "The Montana investment is that last puzzle piece we needed to be where I want us to be, which is truly vertically integrated in avocados," said Fink, Dayka & Hackett's VP of Sales & Marketing. "Montana already has a strong customer base in Europe and Chile. The opening of the U.S. to Colombian avocados became a huge advantage to our domestic customers and that's something Dayka & Hackett can powerfully explore with Montana now part of the Frutura family. Adding Montana's capabilities will allow us to continue to aggressively ramp up and scale as our growing avocado operation necessitates."
For more information:
Alison Holt
Frutura
info@fruturaproduce.com
www.fruturaproduce.com