South African food ingredient producer Synercore Food Holdings plans to acquire Impilo and Sizwe following a USD 4.7mn (ZAR) convertible debt investment from Norwegian development finance institution Norfund.
The acquisitions not only expand the company’s production capacity but also allows it to backward integrate, thereby improving its supply chain and going some way to reduce the country’s dependency on imports—South Africa imported more than USD 1bn of food ingredients in 2019 despite having a developed food sector.
Impilo supplies soy flour to the baking, confectionary and culinary industries, while Sizwe extrudes, roasts, steams, blends and packs grains for the baking, cereal, dairy and meat industries.
Through these acquisitions, we will expand capacity and improve efficiencies as far as blending and manufacturing [are] concerned. It will allow Synercore to backwards integrate to improve supply chain sustainability, and further diversify and expand on our service offering.
Dr. Tertius Cilliers, CEO of Synercore
Synercore Food Holdings formulates, manufactures and distributes food ingredients to FMCG companies in Africa. It was established in 2016 following the acquisition of various food research & application and ingredients companies.