Granarolo ups stake in Venchiaredo

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Venchiaredo makes stracchino, a soft, creamy cow’s milk cheese. Pic: ©Getty Images/fiore26

Italian dairy company Granarolo S.p.A. has taken control of dairy company Venchiaredo S.p.A., after upping the amount of shares in the company from 33.47%, acquired in 2017, to 57.47%.

Venchiaredo SpA, based in Ramuscello di Sesto al Reghena (Pordenone province), specializes in the production of stracchino, a soft, creamy cow’s milk cheese.

The company has 80 employees and a turnover recorded at the end of 2018 of €26.9m ($3.4m), up 18% compared to the previous financial year.

It transforms 36m liters of milk a year, between standard (60%), organic (30%) and premium (10%) milk and in 2018 created 6,800 tons of product.

Gianpiero Calzolari, president of Granarolo SpA, said the deal continues the cooperation between the two companies.

“The operation has already produced for both [companies] results and important synergies on the industrial level and allows Granarolo to follow up on the 2019/2021 Business Plan, which among other things, provides for greater production efficiency and greater specialization of factories.”

He added that Granarolo was also happy to be able to add the 49 members of the Venchiaredo cooperative, who supply 250,000 tons/year of milk to Granarolo’s Granlatte supply chain.

Alessandro Driussi, president of Venchiaredo SpA, said integration into the Granarolo Group means a continunation of growth for Venchiaredo as it aims for an annual production of 9,300 tons of stracchino.