Lotus Bakeries will manufacture fruit snacks in South Africa

Starting in 2019, Lotus Bakeries will manufacture Bear’s fruit snacks itself. The Belgian cookie manufacturer signed a deal with South African Grassroots, which will result in a new factory in 2019.

In the valley where the fruit grows

Bear’s fruit snacks, acquired by Lotus Bakeries in 2015, are currently manufactured by co-creator Grassroots. It owns a factory near the South African Ceres valley, where the fruit grows. Lotus Bakeries has now signed a deal to acquire Bear’s production facilities.

The deal also provides that Grassroots will build a new manufacturing plant in 2019 and will provide the employees required to manufacture Bear’s product range. No financial information has been revealed regarding the talks with Grassroots’ majority shareholder, investment fund Acorn. It is specialized in Sub-Saharan Africa’s food and agricultural industry.

“This acquisition enables us to have a fully vertical integration, which will help us achieve continued sustainable growth for the Bear products”, Lotus subsidiary Natural Foods’ CEO, Isabelle Maes, said. Group CEO, Jan Boone, added: “We want to maintain our position as the market leader in organic snacks in the United Kingdom. We also want to use this strong position to clear the way towards international growth. In-house production is essential in the long run.”