07 Jul 2009

Frucor has reached an agreement to acquire 100% of the Simply Squeezed business, subject to obtaining clearance from the New Zealand Commerce Commission. We expect that approval will be granted in six to eight weeks time.

Simply Squeezed is the second largest fruit juice supplier in New Zealand, next to Frucor, and is the market leader in the chilled juice segment. It has a strong position in supermarkets and the HORECA (hotels, restaurants, cafes) channel, through its flagship Simply Squeezed brand, as well as Supreme, Bay Harvest, and Allganics. Sales are approximately $30 million per annum.

With its head office and factory based in the Hawkes Bay, Simply Squeezed employs 105 people (including part time merchandisers) and has a network of 41 franchised distributors covering the country.

The business was founded by Steve Brownlie in 1991 when he began supplying customers with fresh juice made from locally grown oranges. It grew substantially over the next 15 years and in 2006 a private equity company, Crescent Capital Partners, took a majority stake in the business. The business has demonstrated strong and consistent profitability over the years despite aggressive competition, which is a credit to its management and team.

Simply Squeezed will complement Frucor’s existing business by giving us a strong position in the growing chilled juice segment and significantly increasing our presence in the HORECA channel. While Frucor already owns the Arano business, the Arano and Simply Squeezed businesses have different market positions and strengths which we will be looking to maximise. The Simply Squeezed business will continue to be run as a stand alone business unit and has a full management team in place. Once clearance has been obtained from the Commerce Commission a post acquisition team from across all of the businesses will be put in place to determine how we can best leverage the combined strengths of Simply Squeezed, Arano and Frucor.