Frulact – Ingredientes para a Indústria de Laticínios, Lda. is a

food industry The food industry is a complex, global network of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the world's population. The food industry today has become highly diversified, with manufacturing ranging from small, traditional, ...

company, part of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

-based Ardian since 2020, which is specialized in fruit processing and is headquartered in Maia,

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

. Its aim is the manufacture of food products like fruit compounds for food industries. It has industrial and commercial facilities in Maia,

Covilhã Covilhã () is a city and a municipality in the Centro region, Portugal. The city proper had 34,772 inhabitants in 2001. The municipality population in 2011 was 51,797, in an area of . It is located in the Beiras e Serra da Estrela subregion and ...

Canadá Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

. It produces fruit based products by developing fruit transformation activities in a number of different ways. Among its customers are major leading companies such as

Danone Danone S.A. () is a French multinational corporation, multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock market index. Some of t ...

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, sin ...

, Yoplait, Lactogal,

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy ...

and Emmi.FRULACT – Ingredientes para a Indústria de Lacticínios, S.A., Company Profile at COTEC, Associação Empresarial para a Inovação
(in Portuguese)

History

Frulact was created in Maia, in 1987. The launch of this unit was the culminating point resulting from its mentors' years of experience in the industry of dairy products. In 1998, Frulact expanded to Ferro,

, with a new plant, localised nearby great fruit cultivation areas of Cova da Beira subregion. The following year was benchmarked by winning new strategic borders. Frulact arrived to

to supply a range of industries from the food sector and mass consumption market. Frulact continued its expanding process and arrived to

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

in 2000 with a new plant, which is operating as a platform to supply

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...

and

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

markets. In 2007, a new unit started to operate in the Parkurbis science park in Tortosendo,

. This is a strategic plant localised nearby areas with high fruit production levels. The following years, Frulact open 3 new plants (Morocco and

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , religi ...

– 2008; France – 2009) reinforcing its presence in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

and in the

MENA MENA, an acronym in the English language, refers to a grouping of countries situated in and around the Middle East and North Africa. It is also known as WANA, SWANA, or NAWA, which alternatively refers to the Middle East as Western Asia (or a ...

markets. In 2012, another step forward on the company multinational level was given with the opening of a new plant in South Africa and of another plant in Morocco, which is entirely dedicated to the 1st transformation of fruit. 2012 was also the year of Frulact's 25th birthday celebrated with the opening of a RDI centre next to Maia plant, which is located 5km from the Oporto's International Airport (the largest in the North of Portugal). Based on an agreement announced on January 15, 2020, and after having overcome all legal precedent conditions, 100% of Frulact’s share capital was acquired by France-based Ardian.

Research and development

In partnership with different entities, among them universities, Frulact has been developing research studies in different areas, such as: methodologies to optimise the quality of fruits designed for industrial use, heat exchange technologies, pesticide detection methodologies, development of natural colourings designed for food industry, among others.

External links

Frulact's official website

References

Food and drink companies of Portugal