Westfalia Fruit, a South African group specialising in avocados, has completed the acquisition of Belgian avocado processor Syros.
“Natural next step”
Syros has two production sites in the Belgian province West-Flanders and has been producing fresh and frozen avocado products for major European supermarkets, restaurant chains and meal box companies for more than thirty years. The company supplies both private label and branded products, and has Wonky as its consumer brand.
Its new owner, Westfalia Fruit, is active in seventeen countries on five continents. The acquisition should strengthen Syros’s presence on the European market, especially in the development of private label products. Westfalia Fruit’s President Europe, Belgian Wim Destoop, points out that Syros and Westfalia have been working together for many years. He sees the acquisition therefore as “a natural next step for both companies.”
Westfalia, founded in 1949 in South Africa, calls itself the first vertically integrated avocado supplier – from research to consumer. The company employs 8,000 people on its own plantations, ripening facilities and packing plants.