International food company Nutreco and Canada-based Genex Swine Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding today. This concludes the merger between Nutreco's swine genetics company, Hypor, and Genex.
Both firms believe that the new entity will occupy a leading position in the pig breeding markets of Canada, Japan, Spain and Belgium, with the potential for further expansion in the US, Latin America and Europe.
"With the Hypor customer base in Europe and Asia and the Genex Swine Group customer base in Canada, we have a leading position in the world," said David Libertini, the newly appointed president and former general manager of the Nutreco Canadian company Hybrid Turkeys.
Nutreco owns a 50 per cent share of the merged business, which the company believes will have a turnover of €30 million and around 200 full-time employees.
Nutreco Holding is a global company that operates at various stages of the fish, poultry and pork production chains. These activities are organised into two business streams, Nutreco Aquaculture and Nutreco Agriculture.
Eight business groups, each comprising several business units, operate within these streams. Nutreco operates more than 120 production and processing plants in 22 countries.
Since its flotation in June 1997, Nutreco has made acquisitions in the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Canada, Poland, Chile, France, Portugal, Scotland, Belgium, Hungary, Norway, Australia and the US. The company's sales in 2002 were €3.8 billion.