France’s Compagnie Léa Nature has notched up another investment with a controlling stake in antipasti and olive oil supplier Bio Organica Italia.
Bio Organica’s family owners – brothers Carlo, Michele and Giovanni Gaudiano – will retain 40% in a transaction that also encompasses a share of the Italian firm’s 200-hectare organic farm in Puglia on the southern peninsula.
Founded in 1960 in Cerignola, Foggia, Bio Organica also supplies pesto, tapenade, sundried tomatoes, artichokes and olives under its namesake brand, which is Naturland and Demeter eco-certified. The business also caters to private label for supermarkets.
Compagnie Léa Nature, based in Périgny, said the Italian partnership products will come under its Ekibio arm to be distributed in France and internationally. Ekibio is present in a range of categories, from rice and pasta to crispbreads and gluten-free products.
Ekibio also houses organic biscuits, snack bars and pastry products of French supplier Alpes Biscuits in which Compagnie Léa Nature acquired a 40% interest in May. In another deal, the French company last year snapped up honey specialist Famille Mary.
Charles Kloboukoff, the CEO of the EUR500m (US$509.4m) turnover French business, said: “Compagnie Léa Nature is proud to welcome Bio Organica, an exemplary family business in terms of integration of agricultural sectors and with a great mastery of quality and local varieties.”
Brother Carlo, who is CEO of Bio Organica, said he and his siblings will remain in their management roles.
He added: “It is with pleasure and pride that the family business Bio Organica Italia joins the European family business Compagnie Léa Nature, to which we will have the task of bringing the incredible history, the great agri-food tradition and the capacity for gastronomic innovation of Italy.”
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