Pillaert-Mekoson provides standard and prescription fertilisers to farmers in Belgium and surrounding regions. Headquartered in Ghent, the business markets an extensive range of fertilisers through a business-to-business and retail customer franchise.

It had sales of €35 million with profits (EBITDA) of €1.8m last year.

Under the terms of the deal, Origin acquired 100% control for an undisclosed sum on a debt free and cash free basis. The acquisition is being funded from existing bank facilities and is expected to be earnings enhancing in the first full year of ownership.

Strategic fit

Origin Chief Executive Officer, Tom O’Mahony said “Pillaert-Mekoson is an excellent strategic fit for the Group: He added that it strongly complements Origins prescription fertiliser and speciality nutrition business and that the group would benefit from “the well invested and strategically located asset base”.

The acquisition will add further scale to the Group’s crop nutrition business and will provide an important expansion into a new geography offering multi-channel access to farm with meaningful future growth potential.

Fertiliser

This is the second fertiliser business Origin has bought within the space of 12 months. Origin added to its significant operations in the UK, last March when it purchased Bunn Fertilisers for £14m. It had sales of £128m and profits (EBIT) of around £2.8m in 2016.

Belgium has around 38,000 farms with approx. even split between animals versus crops in terms of output.

Origin reported a slight increase in sales last year to €1.5bn, while pre-tax profits increased 3% €67.5m.

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