SPC, which encompasses the SPC, Ardmona, Goulburn Valley, and ProVital brands, is to relist on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) after taking over the listed company Original Juice Co.
It will also buy Nature One Dairy’s infant formula and powdered milk business. The acquisitions are expected to cost around $53 million (US$36.37 million) and $50 million, respectively.
What began as a farmer co-operative called Shepparton Preserving Company in regional Victoria grew to become a listed company valued at $750 million, which was the price Coca-Cola Amatil paid to acquire it outright in 2005, and then delist it.
It was bought out by a private equity group in 2019 for just $40 million.
Fourteen years later, in 2019, it was worth just $40 million—the price paid by a private equity firm that took it over.
Its major shareholder is boutique investment house Perma Funds Management. Other shareholders include Australian Food Super, the meat industry superannuation fund, and the billionaire Shahin family, which sold the On-the-Run fuel station business to ASX-listed Viva Energy for $1.2 billion in 2023.
SPC claims to be Australia’s largest producer of packaged fruit, tomato, baked beans, and spaghetti.
According to documents filed with the Australian Securities Exchange, SPC brought in $271 million in revenue in the 2024 financial year.
However, its sales have been flat since the most recent takeover, and it’s no secret the company has been under increasing pressure from cheap imported processed fruit, with consumers deserting it as cost of living pressures rise. Last year, it sought to raise $20 million from investors, which it said had to live within the Goulburn Valley region.
The Original Juice Co. (OJC) was founded in 1988 and specialises in chilled fruit and vegetable juices. Its revenues last year were $49 million.
$400 Million Expected in First Year
The new business, to be called SPC Global, will be publicly listed, with OJC’s ASX code changing to SPG.According to a statement, it is expected to generate more than $400 million of revenue, and over $29 million in EBITDA in its 2025 financial year.
Former Asahi Beverages Group CEO and SPC director Robert Iervasi will be the managing director of the merged entity, which will own and operate three divisions based on the three businesses.
Current OJC Chairman Jeff Kennett, who was Victorian premier from 1992 to 1999, will retire after the merger is completed, and SPC Chairman Hussein Rifai will head the enlarged group.
Rifai said scale was increasingly important in the food industry. About 65 percent of the new business’s revenue will be derived from the retail market, led by Coles and Woolworths. Being a larger company with more brands across a more diverse product range, would give it more sway in a sector dominated by the two players.
“Obviously, the bigger you are, the more voice you’ve got around the table,” Rifai said.
He said the mergers had been created to ensure the best use of manufacturing facilities, as there was only a 12-week seasonal production window of fruit from February to April in Goulburn Valley.
“It’s not just a random selection of just a bunch of products put together,” he said.
Original Juice Co shareholders still need to approve the deal at a meeting planned for November.
