Acquisitions in the food and beverage sector, as well as in organized food retail, show no sign of slowing, confirming the belief of consultants and market players in the attractiveness of this sector. The food industry is the strongest manufacturing sector in Greece after petroleum products. It is also export-minded and comprises thousands of active companies, many of which have strong growth prospects.
Investment funds are key catalysts of developments in the sector, from older ones such as EOS and Elikonos to relative newcomers such as Halcyon Equity Partners.
The latter on Monday announced its second investment in the food sector in a few days, this one in the premium ice cream company Kayak. This investment is expected to enable the company to expand into selected foreign markets, beyond Greece and Cyprus, where it is located. Besides Kayak ice cream, the company has acquired the frozen yogurt chain Chillbox.
On June 23, the Halcyon fund announced the acquisition of a minority stake in the street food chain, with an emphasis on Mailo’s, a pasta company with a network of 50 stores in Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon and, now, Canada.
Before that, there was the acquisition of a majority stake in grill chain Proedros by the Golden Age Capital fund headed by Periklis Mazarakis, while in the coffee shop category, two more acquisitions were made: Venetis acquired a minority stake in Coffee Lab, while the Alshaya group acquired the exclusive franchise of the Starbucks cafe chain in Greece and Cyprus, which had previously been held by the Marinopoulos family.
