California avocado company Eco Farms has described Total Produce (T70.IR) as a 'good partner' for future business and said the venture would help it do double production volume within the next five years. 

Total Produce recently announced it had acquired a 45% interest in the U.S. company, with options to buy further shares in the future to gain a majority holding.

Eco Farms general manager Matthew Clark told www.freshfruitportal.com in a brief phone interview it was hoped the acquisition would allow the company to do two things.

"One to be able to renovate and grow our infrastructure to provide a better service to our customers, and second of all we're hoping to expand our grower base around the world and to return a better value to them," he said.

He added that he imagined this acquisition was a good way of getting into a growing U.S. market.

"We've been in the business for 40 years and we thought that a partner of their type would allow us to achieve our growth objectives faster."

Rather than expanding the business in Europe, the venture will mainly help Eco Farms to increase existing operations in the U.S.

"Yes there is business in Europe but I think our focus will be primarily here, in addition to export," he said.

"We had heard of Total Produce's excellent reputation for investing in companies and maintaining their management and so we thought that would be a good partner to have - where we can grow the company and they can provide the resources and the know-how as well."

The general manager said that while he could not speak for Total Produce, he imagined that Eco Farms' many years in the business, along with the owners' excellent reputation within the industry helped it to stand apart.

"I presume they saw that and they saw it as a good opportunity to grow what is a smaller company and turn it into a bigger company," he said.

"It was a good combination between their culture and our culture."

With Total Produce on board, Eco Farms' business plan calls for 'a doubling of [its] volume within the next three to five years'.

The Eco Farms head could not disclose the amount of money paid for the acquisition by the Irish multinational or the specifics of the options to gain a majority shareholding in the future.

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