Pomona, the leading group in the distribution of products to the hospitality industry in France, continues working on its objective of leading the consolidation of this sector in Spain. The company has just closed its fifth acquisition in the country with the purchase of Congelados DIL, an operation that marks its arrival in the Valencia region.
Congelados DIL is specialized in the distribution of frozen food products to restaurants. The company employs 80 people and generated sales of 34 million euros in 2023. From October 2022 to September 2023 , Pomona Iberia had a turnover of 130 million euros, so the size of the new company after the acquisition amounts to 164 million. Its goal is to reach between 170 and 180 million in 2024.
At the same time, Pomona also acquired Decasa, a purchase centre of food & drink products made up of 34 associated distributors.
The French group, with a turnover of 5,000 million and almost 12,000 employees, becomes, after the acquisition of DIL, one of the five largest companies in Spain dedicated to the distribution of food to the hospitality industry, a very atomized market where the company is leading the consolidation process with more than 15,000 clients.
“There are very few companies in this market that have a turnover of more than 50 million in Spain, unlike what happens in France or Germany, where five or six players dominate the market. We are going to continue being an active player looking for more opportunities. This is not the end of the project, but new deals will depend on the opportunities arising,” explains Erik Plas, General Manager of Pomona Iberia.
Pomona landed in Spain in 2014 with the purchase of Cadaico, a restaurant supplier in the Barcelona area based in Mercabarna. Three years later, it acquired Friolisa, another Catalan company. Both were integrated into Friolisa in 2019, creating a distributor throughout Catalonia.
The move outside Catalonia came in 2022, with the purchase of Novafrigo, a company based in the Madrid area, also dedicated to providing services to the restauration sector. In 2023, it acquired Sanamar in Malaga in order to enter Andalucia and expand its portfolio of frozen seafood products. Both transactions, Novafrigo and Sanamar where advised by NORGESTION too.
This is another joint effort by Mergers Alliance partners where Aurignac Finance, MA partner in France, introduced it historical client, Pomona, to NORGESTION who searched the market for the perfect targets and advised through the whole acquisition process.
