NZ: Maui takes bite into fruit firms
Established in 1995 and privatised two years later via a management buy-out, which brought Enza subsidiaries Freshmax and Frucor Produce together, 60 per cent of the firm was bought by Australia's Wolseley Private Equity in 2006.Wolseley said its investment had tripled because of growth and buying John Holman & Co, Panda Ranch, Oztaste, Grewal and De Luca Banana Marketing in Australia and a joint venture farm with Hawke's Bay summerfruit and pipfruit grower Crasborn Group.
Maui Capital managing director, and former Goldman Sachs JBWere head of private wealth Paul Chrystall said Freshmax was now "around third or fourth largest" in its market on both sides of the Tasman.
Freshmax specialised in importing and exporting everything from apples and pears to stonefruit, bananas, berries, kiwifruit and vegetables, and said its gross sales were now more than A$365 million ($476m) a year.But Chrystall said Freshmax's management had approached Maui to help increase the business.Maui has bought Wolseley's 60 per cent interest and helped management update their current shareholdings, which make up the remaining 40 per cent.
Chrystall said his Auckland private equity company specialised in partnering with management teams to accelerate business growth and move into new markets. "Freshmax is a very successful management team who have come out of Enza and Frucor in the old days and many of the key managers in the company, both Australians and New Zealanders, have successfully built up businesses in their own right in this industry before they've sold them into Freshmax," he said.
Freshmax said its key priorities were in securing intellectual property rights, the completion of a national distribution network in Australia and expanding grower supply partners.Since the change of ownership Freshmax had opened a Californian office to run a joint venture with the University of California in distributing seedless mandarins and other produce into New Zealand and Australia.
Chrystall said he envisaged significant fresh capital requirements would occur. "Our current Indigo fund is a $250 million fund, and I think we have $75 million still left to invest."We have access to large offshore specialist investors ... and we're also likely to be raising a new fund next year so capital resources are not something we're particularly worried about."
Source: www.stuff.co.nz