Italy-based poultry heavyweight Amadori has acquired a majority stake in local peer Forno d’Oro for an undisclosed sum.

Amadori has bought a 70% stake in the Vicenza-based company, which specialises in the production of ready-to-eat sliced poultry. Forno d’Oro’s founders, the Cosaro family, will retain a 30% holding and remain involved in the management of the group.

Cesena-based Amadori said the deal will “guarantee a total synergy of skills between the two companies along the entire supply chain of high-end poultry slices” and strengthen its role in the poultry meat sector.

It said the acquisition will increase its operational flexibility and production capacity.

Forno d’Oro, which was founded in the late 1990s, had a turnover in 2022 of more than €26m ($27.4m). It has 76 employees and an 8,000 sq m production site.

Amadori CEO Denis Amadori said that through the deal “we equip ourselves with know-how and structures to develop the offer of high value-added and service content products: elements that will allow us to plan the business of the next strategic plan with these additional levers”.

He added: "The group acquires a state-of-the-art production capacity and an important operational flexibility which will allow us to preside over the markets with our brand to achieve further margins of business development.”

Last February, Amadori, which has 9,000 employees, acquired another Italian meat processor in the shape of Lenti ham brand owner Rugger.

Amadori produces a wide range of chicken and pork products which are sold by the country’s largest retailers.

In 2022, it recorded revenues of €1.73bn, up 27.5% year-on-year, while EBITDA was up 77% at €152m.

Severino Cosaro of Forno d’Oro said: "Since its inception, Forno d'Oro has always been a family even before being a company and today it becomes part of a large group at the top of the Italian agri-food industry which shares our same values: search for quality, care, attention and passion for its work."