Venture Capitalists Make Significant Investment In The Garavilla Groupff

Source: Europe Press

The canning group Garavilla and Venture Capital Fund MCH Private Equity have entered into an investment agreement, in which the latter will  control a significant stake in the capital of the Spanish canned fish company.

To carry out the operation, MCH Private Equity has received financial advice from AZ Capital, as well as support from Deloitte, ERM, Willis and Astilleros de Murueta. The legal and tax advice was provided by Uria Menendez, Attest and the law firm Araoz y Rueda.

As underlined by the company, this transaction strengthens the recent history of the Garavilla Group and represents an important movement for the development of its Strategic Plan 2010/2015, designed by the current management team. Management is led by the group’s president Estanislao Garavilla and by its CEO Juan Corrales. Their main objectives are to renew the canned market through product innovation of its Isabel brand and enhance international expansion through possible acquisitions.

Following the investments made by the group in the last few years (over Eur 100 million to renovate its facilities and its fleet) a new horizon opens for Garavilla’s international development, which closed 2009 with a turnover of Eur 240 million, slightly 1 percent more than the previous year.

According to Garavilla’s CEO Juan Corrales, the company is “facing the challenge of leading the process of international consolidation of the industry, which has become much more apparent in recent years.”

In the meantime, the founder of MCH,  Jaime Hernandez -Soto , recognizes that Garavilla has made “a huge effort, and not only in the processing but also in the Research and Development  fields”.  He acknowledges that Garavilla has become “a company of reference, both in Spain and Latin America and the best platform to lead the consolidation of the industry and face a new phase of international growth".

A major strategy for Garavilla is the renewal of its preserved line with the launch and implementation of " Naturfresh” by Isabel; a technology that,  through a new process, allows to develop new recipes that keep all its ingredients’ properties and flavors intact, natural and without preservatives.

Garavilla developed a range of salads: heatable bowls (tuna casserole, rice with seafood, pasta with tuna and tomato) dishes (tuna steak, squid ink and onions, Galician octopus, etc.), And a child range (tuna burger, tuna sausage and meatballs).

Moreover, the new plan also focuses on empowering the Isabel project in the market of South American, as well as in the Maghreb and the Eastern European countries, where the brand is already well-known. According to managers of the company, “these markets represent a significant potential for future growth, because of their demographic and economical developments”.

The Garavilla Group currently has four production plants located in Mundaka (Vizcaya), El Grove ( Pontevedra), Agadir (Morocco) and Manta ( Ecuador).

MCH Private Equity is an independent manager of venture capital funds with more than 12 years of experience in the sector.

The entry into the capital of the canning group Garavilla was achieved through the newly established MCH Iberican Capital Fund III, worth over Eur 250 millions for investments in Spanish companies in their sector benchmark.