Refresco's huge acquisition approved

Shareholders for Europe’s largest soda and fruit juice manufacturer, Refresco, approved American competitor Cott’s acquisition in droves. The deal is the Rotterdam-based company’s largest acquisition in its seventeen-year history.

70% more turnover

It took a mere 1h50 for Refresco’s shareholders to approve the largest acquisition in the company’s history by 99.5 %. The Dutch company will pay a billion euro to acquire Cott, which manages 29 production facilities in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom. The group’s turnover immediately shoots up 70 % because of the deal, from 2.1 to 3.6 billion euro. Refresco already creates Aldi, Lidl and other major supermarket concerns’ private labels.

Refresco operates in the Benelux, Finland, France, Germany, the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The group employs 5,500 people and bottled 6.5 billion liters of soda and fruit juice last year. Refresco has four locations in the Benelux: three in the Netherlands (Maarheeze, Bodegraven and Hoensbroek) and one in Belgium (Ninove). Refresco Benelux employs 650 people and bottles more than 1 billion liters in 2.2 billion packages, from cans to brick to PET bottles.