Arca buys US firm Wise and Ecuador's Inalesca
Mexican firm already owns domestic snacks business
Arca also number two Coke bottler in Latin America
Mexican food and drink group Arca Continental has bolstered its snacks business with two acquisitions, including the purchase of US firm Wise Foods.
Arca owns the Bokados snack business in Mexico but is better known as Latin America's second-largest bottler for Coca-Cola Co.
However, the company yesterday (17 December) announced the acquisitions of Wise and of a snacks firm in Ecuador, Industrias Alimenticias Ecuatorianas, or Inalecsa.
Private-equity firm Palladium Equity Partners has owned Wise since 2000. Arca said the Wise brand has a "strong core market" but also has the potential to be expanded nationally. Arca said Wise was the number one regional brand in the New York Metropolitan market.
Inalecsa has two plants in Ecuador and supplies products across the country, as well as into Europe.
"The integration of Wise Foods and Inalecsa reinforces our confidence in this segment of the snack industry as an important vehicle for creating value for our shareholders, in areas that are highly complementary to our core business," Arca chairman Manuel Barragan Morales said.
