Universal Corporation to Acquire Silva International, a Market-Leading Provider of Natural, Specialty Dehydrated Vegetable, Fruit and Herb Ingredients
Founded in 1979, Silva procures over 60 types of dehydrated vegetables, fruits and herbs from over 20 countries around the world. In addition to sourcing, the company specializes in processing natural raw materials into custom designed dehydrated vegetable- and fruit-based ingredients for a variety of end products. Headquartered in
"We're excited to have reached this agreement with Silva as we continue to diversify our offerings and generate new opportunities for value creation. This acquisition builds on our investment in FruitSmart and expands our plant-based ingredients platform. With this acquisition, we expect these businesses to represent 10% to 20% of our EBITDA by fiscal year 2022, ahead of our previously stated target outlined as part of our capital allocation strategy," said
"With Silva as part of our plant-based ingredients platform, we will be able to offer customers a single source for vegetable and fruit ingredients solutions. Silva, FruitSmart, and CIFI all serve similar industries but have different product portfolios and minimal customer overlap. We expect to leverage significant commercial synergies between these businesses, and we are excited by the prospect of leveraging Universal's global network of hundreds of thousands of farmers to drive growth across the platform," continued
"For more than 40 years, Silva has consistently produced flavorful, high-quality, natural specialty ingredients to meet our customers' specifications. By joining Universal, we will be able to take advantage of opportunities for collaboration and growth while remaining true to our culture and our mission," said
Silva has established a reputation as the 'go-to' provider for 'clean', natural, specialty dehydrated vegetable- and fruit-based ingredients due to its unique competencies and significant capacity to source, process and manufacture raw materials. The Silva team has longstanding relationships with farmers and suppliers around the world and maintains strong quality control procedures, ensuring consistent, high-quality supply. Silva continually reinvests in its business and recently expanded and enhanced its manufacturing facility. As a result, the company is well positioned to take advantage of increasing demand for natural and clean-label products across the end markets it serves, including within the attractive and growing savory and pet food end markets. Silva has also demonstrated consistent, long-term revenue growth and has strong customer diversity.
Advisors
About
Forward Looking Statements
This release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "assume," "estimate," "expect," "target" "project," "predict," "intend," "plan," "believe," "potential," "may," "should," "would" and similar expressions may identify forward looking information. Forward-looking information in these materials includes, but is not limited to: the acquisition of Silva; the expected closing of the Silva acquisition; and contributions to future earnings. The Company cautions readers that any statements contained herein regarding financial condition, results of operation, and future business plans, operations, opportunities, and prospects for its performance are forward-looking statements based upon management's current knowledge and assumptions about future events, and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any anticipated results, prospects, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, product purchased not meeting quality and quantity requirements; reliance on a few large customers; its ability to maintain effective information technology systems and safeguard confidential information; anticipated levels of demand for and supply of its products and services; costs incurred in providing these products and services; timing of shipments to customers; changes in market structure; government regulation; product taxation; industry consolidation and evolution; changes in exchange rates and interest rates; impacts of regulation and litigation on its customers; industry-specific risks related to its food ingredient business; exposure to certain regulatory and financial risks related to climate change; changes in estimates and assumptions underlying its critical accounting policies; the promulgation and adoption of new accounting standards, new government regulations and interpretation of existing standards and regulations; and general economic, political, market, and weather conditions. Actual results, therefore, could vary from those expected. A further list and description of these risks, uncertainties, and other factors can be found in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended
View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/universal-corporation-to-acquire-silva-international-a-market-leading-provider-of-natural-specialty-dehydrated-vegetable-fruit-and-herb-ingredients-301125148.html
SOURCE
Investor Contact Information: Candace C. Formacek, Phone: (804) 359-9311, Fax: (804) 254-3584, Email: investor@universalleaf.com; Media Contact Information: Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher (Steve Frankel / Arielle Rothstein): 212-355-4449