17 November 2022 - In September, Phosphea announced that it had finalised the acquisition of SPO Indústria e Comércio LTDA, a Brazilian company with a 100,000-tonne/year-capacity feed phosphate production unit located in Imbituba, Santa Catarina state.
Providing Feedinfo with an update yesterday at EuroTier on the integration and priorities for SPO, Caroline Biard, Marketing and Innovation Director at Phosphea, talked about the strategic fit SPO offers.
“SPO is a well-known feed phosphates producer in Brazil. We knew them as a competitor. We were aware that the owners wished to sell the business and when the opportunity arose, we took it,” Biard said.
SPO is also strategically located in an area which has a lot of poultry and feed production and is close to an important port. The company is also based in a region where Phosphea has been active commercially for many years.
“We wanted to be as close as possible to our customers in Brazil and be more reactive in terms of supply with a local facility,” Biard commented.
Regarding synergies, both the Phosphea and SPO teams will share their experiences as the integration continues. SPO also has experience in the salt processing business – a new opportunity for Phosphea.
“Our short-term priority is to grow the SPO portfolio of products, not increase production capacity of dicalcium phosphate (DCP),” Biard stated.
This decision is part of Phosphea’s bigger plan to be R&D specialists and roll out new products in all of its factories, like it has done recently in Tunisia.
“Another priority will be to bring the Imbituba site to EU manufacturing standards,” Biard added. “We will continue to monitor synergies at the factory and subsequently decide what requires investment.”
Phosphea will also initially remain focused on growing its presence in Brazil before gradually start thinking about other neighbouring countries.
Biard went on to say that, thanks to SPO, Phosphea has established manufacturing presence in a new continent. Thus, the acquisition fits in well with company plans to grow in other global regions.
Phosphea’s Marketing and Innovation Director pointed out that new regions where Phosphea plans to invest in moving forward will most likely be areas where the company already has a commercial presence and where acquisitions would help with external development. And in terms of further distribution, Phosphea is also looking for partners dedicated to technological animal nutrition products.
SPO has a workforce of 80+ employees. Phosphea confirmed that all positions will be maintained, in line with the focus to expand the company talent in Brazil.
Commenting on the people integration process, Biard said that SPO is not Phosphea’s first acquisition. They explained who Phosphea is and what they did in the past in other markets.
“We wanted to give them confidence for the future and show them clearly where we want the business to go,” Biard said.