Conserve Italia says hello to Juver

Conserve Italia, the Italian co-operative group which specialises in canned fruit and vegetables, has bought the Spanish fruit juice business of Hero, the Swiss food and drink group, for an undisclosed sum.

Reports suggest that the Italian group fought off competition from Spanish beer group Damm, German juice maker Granini and US carbonates giant Coca-Cola to win control of Juver, the biggest fruit juice producer in Spain.

Hero has been looking to sell off Juver since early March, appointing investment bank JP Morgan to look for a buyer. Juver is the leading fruit juice producer in Spain, but Hero has decided to focus on products marketed under its own brand name, namely baby food, diet products and preserves.

Hero bought Juver in 1990, and was thought to be seeking around €100 million for the business - a figure considered a little high by some analysts. Juver's sales in 2001 were around €109 million, while its output reached 186 million litres, covering both its own brands and those owned by Hero.

Marco Gadola, chief financial officer of the Hero group, commented: "The sale of the Juver business represents a further step in our quest to streamline the Hero business and to concentrate on our core categories. In Conserve Italia, we believe we have a found a strong partner who will ensure the continued success of Juver and the well-being of its employees and customers."​

Meanwhile, Conserve Italia has reiterated its interest in taking over the operations of Cirio, its Italian counterpart currently being run by the administrators after defaulting on a number of bond repayments.

The administrators have still not decided if Cirio will be sold or if selling off a number of its operating units - such as Del Monte in Singapore and Bombril in Brazil - will be enough to get it back on its feet again as a going concern.

Conserve Italia has repeatedly expressed its interest in Cirio, and the company's vice-chairman Paolo Bruni last week told the Italian media that his company wanted to acquire the Cirio brand, its production facilities and its tomato-processing activities.

Unilever buy​

Meanwhile, in unrelated news, Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Unilever has confirmed the acquisition of Indonesian snack food company Taro, although it gave no details of how much it had paid or when the acquisition had been finalised.

In a statement, the company said it was looking for other acquisitions in Indonesia, and that it had $500 million to invest there over the next ten years. Indonesian exports account for 6 per cent of Unilever's total sales at the moment, but the company is planning to increase this to 15 per cent by 2008.