Australia: Harvey Fresh sold to Parmalat

Harvey Fresh, the Western Australian (WA) family-owned company, has been sold to Italian dairy group Parmalat for $117 million.

According to Parmalat, the move into WA is aimed at improving its capacity to export into Asia and the Harvey Fresh brand will be retained on milk, cheese, cream and juice products. Four existing Harvey Fresh directors will also continue to be involved in the business as consultants.

Parmalat CEO Craig Garvin commented: “The company thinks there is a lot of growth potential in Harvey Fresh. There’s a strong capability here for export and combined with the brands we already have and the iconic Harvey Fresh brand, we think this is an excellent acquisition.”

Kevin Sorgiovanni, Harvey Fresh marketing and sales director said that “Boosting West Australian produce is more important than retaining the ‘Australian owned brand’, I think being Australian is very, very important but I also think that buying West Australian produce is more important.”

He went on to say “I guess we're hopeful of seeing this big international company that is interested in investing in quality processing outfits and obviously they saw Harvey Fresh as a great opportunity to do that. I would hope so far as local producers go that Parmalat will be hoping to grow that business, particularly get fairly serious on the export market and if they need more milk to supply those markets.”

Source: ABC