Dayka & Hackett LLC, Reedley, Calif., and Agrícola Don Ricardo, Ica, Peru, have signed agreements to sell majority ownership to newly formed produce company Frutura.
David Krause, former president of The Wonderful Co.’s citrus operation, is Frutura’s founding CEO.
“I’m part of a team crafting a brand-new company, built for precisely this moment in time in global agriculture,” Krause said in a news release. “And I get to go on this journey with people I respect and enjoy, from two world-class produce companies I’ve long admired.”
Dayka & Hackett and Agrícola Don Ricardo each bring decades of sector significance to Frutura, according to the release.
Dayka & Hackett has been an importer, seller and marketer and Agrícola Don Ricardo has been a grower, packer and shipper, the release said.
The companies’ complementary business models, as well as a shared commitment to quality produce and sophisticated operations, make this a potent partnership, company leaders said.
“I’ve come to know David over the last year and have worked closely with Agrícola Don Ricardo management for the better part of a decade,” Dayka & Hackett CEO Tim Dayka said in the release. “I’m convinced together we can identify many global supply chain efficiencies to the benefit of our discerning customers, who want the very best produce and who want it year-round.”
Dayka and Ricardo Briceno and Rafael Ibarguren, both of Agrícola Don Ricardo, will continue to run the respective operations, according to the release.
“We’ve been approached before with attractive acquisition offers,” Briceno, chairman of Agrícola Don Ricardo, said in the release. “But what prompted Rafael and me to make this move was the time spent in strategic conversation around a shared vision for what we can accomplish as collaborators. This was the ‘fit’ we’d not found elsewhere.”
Frutura is a portfolio company of RRG Capital Management. Agrícola Don Ricardo was acquired in March 2021 by RRG Produce Holdco LLC, which has been renamed and branded Frutura. Dayka & Hackett signed an agreement to be acquired by Frutura in June, according to the release.
Vision
The announcement is the first of several that Frutura plans in the years ahead, Krause said.
“We’ve got two great companies that are the base of our business, but we’re looking to continue to grow and expand that as we meet that vision of servicing our customers,” Krause said June 23.
The two companies form the foundation of Frutura’s powerful sales and marketing network designed to supply global customers with high-quality fruit, 365 days a year.
Frutura’s biggest position will be in table grapes, Krause said.
“We will have perhaps one of the largest portfolios of proprietary table grape offerings for the North American market,” he said, adding that Frutura will also offer deciduous fruit, citrus and tropical fruit.
Krause said the “thesis” for Frutura is to focus primarily on aggregating supply in the counter-seasonal markets, where now there is typically fragmentation and not many big players.
That, he said, is the reason behind the investment in Agrícola Don Ricardo.
“We’ll have others (beyond Agrícola Don Ricardo), so our focus is really on Latin America from a growing and vertical integrated operation (perspective), but we’ll have a position in North America as well through grower partners that give us that 52-week-per-year supply,” Krause said.
Frutura is focused on making meaningful progress in Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) and will make accountability in these areas foundational to its operations, according to the release. The company intends, over time, to be both a leader and a resource by bringing significant social and environmental impact to commercial agriculture.
“We’re partnering with companies that believe in that, and I think we’re going to offer some uniqueness there,” Krause said, noting water management and other sustainability investments by the company’s partners.
