Architects of Ardian: Creating lasting change with innovative food solutions

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Inside Ardian, Growth stories

Architects of Ardian: Creating lasting change with innovative food solutions

  • 24 June 2024

  • Private Equity

  • Buyout

Reading time: 3 minutes

    In this series, we tell the stories behind how Ardian’s portfolio companies create lasting change in their sectors. Through Frulact, our portfolio company specializing in food solutions, we are driving change by leading the transition towards a more sustainable food industry.

    Innovating food with Frulact

    Innovating food with Frulact

    At Ardian, we are experts in navigating and embracing change, recognizing finance as a powerful agent of transformation. We enable this transformation through the Buyout team’s acquisitions, applying cutting-edge buy-and-build strategies to our portfolio companies, placing sustainability at the heart of our business.

    Frulact, a top-ranked producer of added-value ingredients for the food industry, has been an Ardian portfolio company since 2020. Like Ardian, Frulact prioritizes innovation, sustainability, and agility in developing tailor-made solutions for its customers, priding itself on its unique Research & Development endeavors.

    What makes us unique is our ability to create a business-innovative ecosystem with our customers and to be an essential part of their growth strategy.

    Paulo Leal, Chief Marketing Officer, FRULACT

    Frulact has always tried to anticipate its customer's needs. Our customers are demanding more “Clean Label” solutions and Frulact today is leading the transition towards a more sustainable market,” adds Paulo Leal.

    Transforming leading niche companies into global players

    Transforming leading niche companies into global players

    Ardian’s multinational investment team works with leading players across multiple industries, enabling them to become global leaders in their sector. Portugal-based Frulact is a prime example of this – with Ardian’s support, it is already one of the leading innovators in food solutions in the European market. 

    Ardian seeks to foster Frulact’s growth by helping accelerate its strategic plan, leverage new acquisitions, and find new market opportunities. With Ardian's backing to consolidate its operations in Europe and establish a strong foothold in North America, Frulact is poised to become a leading global player in the food ingredients industry.

    Understanding the specificities of each segment of the value chain and the interactions between them is key to our success. That is why we have developed our farm to fork approach to investing across the value chain.

    Gonzalo Fernandez-Albinana, Head of Buyout Spain & Portugal and Managing Director.

    Ardian has in-depth knowledge gained from over 20 years of investing in the sector. 

    We have deployed over €2.8 billion in more than 100 transactions and created a food and ingredients community of over 100 senior advisors, experts, management teams and entrepreneurs.

    • 20 years

      of investing in the Food value chain sector

    • €2.8 billion

      deployed by Ardian in more than 100 transactions

    • 100

      senior advisors, experts, management teams and entrepreneurs in the food and ingredients community

    This gives us a long-term vision of the sector and access to unique information that guides our investment approach.

    We see considerable long-term potential in the sector. Food is at the heart of a healthy, sustainable society, and therefore presents countless opportunities at every stage of the value chain.