AGRANA Opens New Fruit Preparations Plant in Lysander, New York

19 May 2014 --- The AGRANA subsidiary AGRANA Fruit US Inc. has officially opened its fourth production site for fruit preparations in the USA. Around € 30 million have been invested in this new facility located in Lysander, in the state of New York.

The new site will manufacture approximately 45,000 tonnes of fruit preparations based on strawberries, blueberries or peaches for the fruit yoghurt, bakery product and ice cream industry and create 60 new jobs. In the interests of sustainability, the planning and construction of this facility was in accordance with the international LEED standards (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

"We are delighted to open this new plant after just one year of construction work. North America is an important growth market in the area of fruit preparations. We have identified rising customer demand particularly in the north-east of the USA and Canada. The construction of a fourth fruit preparations facility in this region in order to sustainably consolidate our market leadership was therefore a logical investment step," AGRANA Group CFO Walter Grausam highlighted in his opening speech. In contrast to the stagnating European market, the US market most recently achieved annual growth of 5% in fruit preparations due to the trend in the direction of products with a higher proportion of fruit, such as Greek yoghurts.

Fruit preparations contain top quality fruit which is prepared either as a liquid or in pieces in order for these to be used mainly in dairy products but also in the ice cream and bakery industries. These products are individually designed and further developed in cooperation with customers. AGRANA produces fruit preparations at 26 sites worldwide. Besides the plant in Lysander, AGRANA also has three other facilities in the USA, namely at Botkins (Ohio), Centerville (Tennessee) and Fort Worth (Texas). The US head office for administration and product development is in Brecksville (Ohio).

AGRANA adds value to agricultural commodities to produce top quality foodstuffs and numerous industrial upstream products. Around 8,800 personnel working at over 50 production facilities worldwide generate consolidated revenue of approximately three billion euros. The Group was founded in 1988 and is today the leading sugar company in Central and Eastern Europe as well as being a key producer, in the Starch segment, of special products and bioethanol in Europe. AGRANA is also the global leader in fruit preparations and one of the largest European producers of fruit juice concentrates.