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 located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

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

Maia Maia (; Ancient Greek: Μαῖα; also spelled Maie, ; ), 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 daughter of A ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

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

Covilhã Covilhã (), officially Covilhã City (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in the Centro, Portugal, Centro region, Portugal. The city proper had 33,691 inhabitants in 2021. The municipality population in 2021 was 46,455 in an area of . It is ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. 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 1919 in Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris, where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock mark ...

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

Yoplait Yoplait ( , ) is a French dessert company and the world's largest franchise brand of yogurt. It is fully owned by the French dairy cooperative Sodiaal since 2021. In North America, the Canadian subsidiary was taken over by Sodiaal in 2025. Th ...

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 d ...

Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

and Emmi.FRULACT – Ingredientes para a Indústria de Lacticínios, S.A., Company Profile at COTEC, Associação Empresarial para a Inovação
(in Portuguese) {{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070706213824/http://www.cotec.pt/COTEC/Redaccao/2006/16/PME0042.htm, date=2007-07-06

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 Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

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

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

and

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

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 Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

– 2008; France – 2009) reinforcing its presence in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and in the

MENA The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), also referred to as West Asia and North Africa (WANA) or South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA), is a geographic region which comprises the Middle East (also called West Asia) and North Africa together ...

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 5 km 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