Italian Parmalat to buy Australian Longwarry Food Park for $67m

Posted on 22 Dec 2014 by Tim Brown
The Parmalat headquarters in Italy - image courtesy of Parmalat

Food and beverage company Parmalat SpA announced on Friday that it has entered into an agreement to buy Australian dairy products manufacturer Longwarry Food Park

Parmalat said the deal was valued at about EUR 45m ($67.5m AUD) and said it would use its own resources to cover the purchase price. The transaction needs to meet certain conditions including approval by the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board.

A range of Parmalat's existing Australian brands - image courtesy of Parmalat
A range of Parmalat’s existing Australian brands – image courtesy of Parmalat.

Longwarry, which employs about 50 people, has a range of products including fresh and long life, milk powders and cream cheese. The company, whose operations are concentrated in Victoria, booked about EUR 60m in revenues in its last fiscal year.

For Parmalat, the deal is an opportunity to solidify its position in Australia, broaden its local manufacturing base and further expand it’s export market, as 80% of Longwarry’s UHT milk, milk powders and cream cheese are currently exported.

In 2003 Parmalat suffered Europes biggest ever bankruptcy and collapsed with a EUR 14bn ($21bn AUD) hole in its accounts. Since 2011, the former Italian company is now controlled globally by French dairy giant Lactalis