Oslo-listed Tomra Food buys kiwi small fruit packing company

Oslo-listed Tomra Food buys kiwi small fruit packing company BBC Technologies

By Rebecca Howard

Feb. 27 (BusinessDesk) - Oslo-listed Tomra Food has inked a deal to buy 100 percent of the shares in Hamilton-based small fruit packing and sorting company BBC Technologies for $66.9 million.

The deal - expected to close at the end of February - will see BBC Technologies’ precision grading systems and innovative punnet and clamshell filling solutions for blueberries and other small fruits join Tomra Food’s own fruit inspection and grading technology portfolio, Tomra Food said in a statement. The deal also includes software called FreshTracker, which enables traceability of the origins and characteristics of individual products from harvesting, processing and packaging, through to point-of-sale.

BBC Technologies will operate as a division of Tomra Food. Geoff Furniss will continue to lead BBC Technologies, reporting to Mike Riley, head of Tomra Food.

Tomra will pay the purchase price in cash, and the transaction will be financed through existing drawing rights.

"This acquisition further increases Tomra’s leadership in grading, sorting, and packaging solutions for fresh, packaged, and processed foods," said Riley. "We are also making large-scale investments to create new value for customers by extracting and analysing data from Tomra equipment, which is complemented by the Freshtracker platform. This is just one example of how combining the two companies will generate significant new value and transform the industry," he said.

According to Riley, the combination of the two businesses will create the world's most complete small-fruit sorting and packaging portfolio for large to small pack-houses, and for the growing number of repack and fresh produce distribution centres worldwide.

(BusinessDesk)

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