The Murcian company El Ciruelo has just purchased the Brazilian table grape producer Labrunier, its international distributor Bravis and its subsidiaries from JD Group.
The business conglomerate acquired includes five companies in Brazil and the Netherlands, namely producers and marketers. With more than 3,000 workers and 2,400 hectares owned, an almost 1,000 of them already in production, it has the largest acreage in the world dedicated exclusively to the development of new varieties. Labrunier is also a leading company in terms of innovation, using cutting-edge technologies for the care and supervision of crops, and with "Rainforest Alliance" environmental certificates.
From a strategic and commercial point of view, El Ciruelo is acquiring the leading group when it comes to table grape production and sale in the Brazilian domestic market (the largest in Latin America, with more than 200 million potential consumers), as well as the country’s largest network for the export of table grapes, directly meeting the needs of international clients such as Walmart, Wholefoods or Loblaws in North America, as well as those of some of the largest European retailers.
Furthermore, Bravis is the only Brazilian company authorized to export Murcott mandarins to Europe.
The choice of Brazil is equally strategic from a productive point of view, as the climatic conditions of the San Francisco River Valley make it possible to obtain two harvests of table grapes per year. This will allow El Ciruelo to offer exclusively its own grapes to its current customers, thus reducing the dependence on purchases from third countries, which are usual for the sector at certain times of the year.
According to the CEO of El Ciruelo, José Velasco, it is also worth noting that Brazil is the country of the southern hemisphere with the shortest shipping times to Europe (one week less than shipments made from South Africa, and about two weeks less than those made from other producing countries, such as Chile or Peru).
This commitment to offering the best proximity product to its customers, with a guarantee of coming from its own plantations, will also be reinforced with an ambitious investment plan in new varieties and production in Brazil, which El Ciruelo will execute in the next 3 years, once the appropriate administrative authorizations have been granted. To this end, El Ciruelo will continue to count on the executives who have been working hand in hand with the selling family in Labrunier, and in particular, with Arnaldo and Daniel Eijsink, linked to the company for decades, and who will continue as partners and directors.
In the agreement between the JD Group and the Velasco family, the coincidence in many aspects of their respective business cultures has had special relevance, since both are family groups with a long trajectory. In fact, El Ciruelo is the only large Spanish producer of seedless grapes that is still 100% family-owned and has not brought in any capital from financiers outside the sector. In the opinion of José Velasco, it is fundamental that El Ciruelo continues to convey values of family and business commitment in the long term, while most companies in the sector have initiated sales processes for all or part of their shares to venture capital investors.
From the legal and financial point of view, it is an operation of maximum complexity, with multiple jurisdictions involved. The buyer has been advised by the agribusiness and M & A teams of Garrigues, the biggest experts in the sector, who have been led by the Murcia office with the support of the Garrigues Brazil team.
On the part of the JD Group, the weight of the advice in the operation has fallen to Duff & Phelps Brazil. The companies that are the object of the operation were founded in the 80’s by Carrefour itself, and acquired by the JD Group in 2007. Its purchase this year by the Velasco family will keep these companies under the same philosophy of being a large family company with a vocation for permanence, stability and growth, creating a group that will produce around 100 million kilos of seedless grapes per year and become one of the leaders in the sector worldwide.
For more information:
Cristina Gutiérrez
Grupo El Ciruelo
T: +34 968 630 645
Email: cristinagutierrez@elciruelo.coma
www.elciruelo.com