Calavo Growers chief executive Lee Cole said today (26 May) that the avocado processor’s planned acquisition of Renaissance Food Group would “transform” his company.

Cole said the acquisition of RFG, a privately-owned, California-based fresh food group, would help Calavo grow and enable it to provide its retail customers with more products.

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“Calavo invested a considerable amount of time and energy over the years identifying the right sizeable transaction,” Cole said. “I believe we found the perfect company that is ideally positioned in a significant growth category, comes with a strong brand and allows us to effectively leverage our blue-chip customer base by selling more products to them.”

Privately-owned RFG, based in California, sells products including fruit, vegetables, deli lines and sandwiches. Revenue in its current financial year is expected to be over US$100m. In the year to the end of October, Calavo’s turnover was $398.4m.

The acquisition of RFG, Cole said, would be “immediately accretive” to earnings. “Our acquisition of Renaissance Food Group and its outstanding Garden Highway brand represents a transformational step forward for Calavo. RFG will be a key growth driver of our company’s expansion in the fresh refrigerated packaged goods category in both the retail produce and deli departments,” he added.

RFG was founded in 2003 and Jim Catchot, one of the group’s founders and its president, said he was “truly excited” to join forces with a company of “Calavo’s quality and stature”.

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The deal, struck for an undisclosed sum, is expected to close next week.