It’s a new acquisition for Parmalat by its subsidiary in Australia, a part of the World which is becoming more and more of a strategic stronghold for the Lactalis group company. After acquiring Harvey Fresh in the spring of this year it is now the turn of Longwarry Food Park, based in Longwarry, about sixty kilometres to the east of Melbourne in the state of Victoria, where there is already a strong presence of the Emilia-based company. The acquisition is strategic because it allows Parmalat to enter into the milk powder sector, which until now was absent in Australia and which is finding an interesting market outlet in China. In the case of Harvey Fresh, its strongholds were on the eastern side of the vast nation, an area where at one time there was very little presence, and also as an export platform to the countries of South East Asia and Hong Kong.
Longwarry, valued at 45 million Euros at an enterprise value level, owns one production site in addition to Parmalat’s eight and Harvey’s two and employs around 50 people. In the last financial year the turnover of the company was equal to 60 million euros. Longwarry Food Park was acquired completely by the company’s own financial means.
In this way, Parmalat is becoming an ever more important player in Australia, both upstream in the supply chain where it is consolidating its positions as a supplier and also downstream where it is equipped with a considerable production capacity with a view of exporting mainly to the Asian countries.
