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, traditiona ...

company, part of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

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

Maia Maia (; Ancient Greek: Μαῖα; also spelled Maie, ; la, Maia), in ancient Greek religion and mythology, is one of the Pleiades and the mother of Hermes, one of the major Greek gods, by Zeus, the king of Olympus. Family Maia is the daugh ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

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

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 B ...

, Canadá,

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 to ...

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 countri ...

. 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 Switzerland, 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 me ...

Yoplait Yoplait ( , ) is the world's largest franchise brand of yogurt. It is jointly owned by American food conglomerate General Mills and French dairy cooperative Sodiaal. History In 1964, 100,000 French farmers agreed to merge six regional dairy coo ...

Lactogal Lactogal is a Portuguese food products company focused on dairy products, milk, fruit juice and mineral water. It is headquartered in Porto and is placed among the twenty largest agro-food European companies. It has major factories in Oliveira ...

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 dri ...

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 ...

and

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

markets. In 2007, a new unit started to operate in the

Parkurbis Parkurbis is a Portuguese science park in Covilhã. This organization is oriented to the support and fostering of new technology based businesses, providing support services to start ups and infrastructures that fit the needs of the new entreprene ...

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 , relig ...

– 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 Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

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