Unica Group and Grupo AN completed their integration on Friday at an event held at Almería’s Science and Technology Park (PITA). The merger creates Spain’s biggest fruit and vegetable cooperative with combined sales in 2017 expected to top €300m.
The deal marks the culmination of a process begun several months ago to bring Unica under the umbrella of Grupo AN’s parent company, AN S.coop. A new company, Unica Fresh, which will be run by Unica, will be responsible for all of the group’s fresh produce trading.
Unica said in a press release that the new entity would provide greater assurance to its customers by increasing the volume, scope and availability of its offer.
“By making the most of the synergies between the two cooperatives, we will create more opportunities and a better future for their member growers,” the statement said.
The new entity is structured in such a way as to facilitate the integration of new cooperatives in the future and the presidents of Grupo AN and Unica expressed their hope that the deal does not mark the end of a process but rather a new beginning.
Grupo AN is Spain’s biggest agricultural cooperative with an annual turnover of €775m. It has 150 cooperative members in 17 provinces who together employ more than 30,000 workers. Besides fruits and vegetables it produces cereals, poultry, fertilizers and seeds, amongst other things.
Made up of 10 cooperatives in Almería, Granada and Murcia, Unica produces around 271,000 tonnes of fruits and vegetables a year.
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