'Another step in our growth strategy': Molinos acquires La Salteña from General Mills

Founded in 1962, Argentinian company La Salteña has a range of empanadas, pasta, and refrigerated dough for home baking.

The company announced it had completed the acquisition last week on January 15, 2019.

It called the transaction “another step in the framework of [our] growth strategy​” that follows previous investments over the past two years totaling AR$100 million, including the addition of gluten-free pasta lines, factory modernizations, and storage capacity expansions.

A statement by Molinos said: “This acquisition reaffirms the path of growth and development that the Perez Companc Group has been following, investing in its food, agro and energy platforms with the vision of being a reference and protagonist in the construction of a better future for the country.”​

It did not reveal financial details of the transaction or say whether there would be job losses. La Salteña counts over 500 employees and has a factory in the Buenos Aires province, opened in 2011.

Molinos is the food division of family-owned Perez Companc Group. It recorded sales of US$735.1 million in 2016, around one-third of which came from domestic sales.

Its brands include Luchetti, Matarazzo, Granja del Sol, Gallo and ChocoArroz.

Latam M&A ​

According to Zenith Global, 2018 was a record year for food and drink industry transactions. It registered 777 mergers and acquisitions around the world in its Bevblog database – a 63% increase on five years ago - and of these, 23 took place in the Latin American region.

The meat sector is an active player in the region’s M&A activity: Marfig featured in four of these transactions and BRF in three.

The biggest deal in Latin America last year was US meat giant Tyson Foods acquired Keystone Foods from Marfrig Global Foods for $2.16bn.