Plant-based manufacturer Sanygran Foods has acquired Obrador Sorribas, the meat-free arm of fellow Spanish business Idilia Foods.
The deal, for an undisclosed sum, sees Navarre-based Sanygran take control of a 60-employee plant in Barcelona manufacturing meat-free products including burgers, sausages and ready meals.
Sanygran said the transaction “strengthens our European expansion plan”.
In a statement, it said: “This strategic operation positions us as one of the companies with the largest industrial capacity in southern Europe to manufacture vegetable foods, which allows us to expand our portfolio and offer our customers a wide range of products and possibilities.”
It added: “This acquisition is of great importance for our company, as it allows us to offer our customers not only raw materials, ingredients or food in industrial format, but also ready meals for both retail and foodservice.”
Sanygran, which has a factory in Tudela in Navarre, also suggested the expansion in its production capacity brings its closer to its goal of “democratising prices in the plant-based sector, one of the most important challenges facing our sector due to the lack of scalability in industrial production and the impact of high prices on the market”.
Roselyne Chane, general director of Sanygran, which owns the Legumeat, Fleximeat and Buenggies brand, has stressed the increase in capacity will allow the company to offer manufacturing capability to other plant-based businesses.
She said: “With this new plant, we are the ideal partner to start any project in vegetable food. We provide a solution both to those customers who are looking for a product that mimics meat or fish, and to those who want a more traditional vegetable option always in a tasty, healthy way and now at the best price, in any format, offering the consumer a wide range of possibilities when buying.”
Just Food has asked Idilia Foods, owner of brands such as ColaCao and Nocilla, for its comments on the deal.
Spanish media outlets have suggested it has sold Obrador Sorribas as part of its strategy to focus on its core businesses.
