AGRANA Group

History of AGRANA

How it all began...

1988 AGRANA Beteiligungs-Aktiengesellschaft is set up to act as the umbrella for the merged Austrian sugar and starch industries; the company operates the three sugar factories in Hohenau, Leopoldsdorf and Tulln, the potato starch factory in Gmünd as well as the maize starch factory in Aschach
1989 Strategic alliance entered into with Germany's Südzucker AG Mannheim | Ochsenfurt, which is Europe's largest sugar enterprise
1990 Entry into the Hungarian sugar industry and acquisition of a stake in Hungary's Hungrana maize starch and isoglucose factory
1991 Stock-exchange launch: 1,500,000 preference shares are listed in the Vienna stock exchange's B-Segment
1994 Entry into the Czech market: takeover of one sugar factory in Hrušovany
1996 Expansion of interests in Hungary: acquisition of Magyar Cukor AG
1998
  • Acquisition of stakes in 4 sugar factories in Romania and 2 sugar factories in Slovakia
  • Acquisition of 2 more sugar factories in the Czech Republic
2001 Purchase of a maize starch factory Tandarei
2003
  • Development of the group's third Segment Fruit with it's operating units AGRANA Juice and AGRANA Fruit
  • Complete takeover of Denmark's Vallø Saft A/S and acquisition of an initial stake in Austria's Steirerobst AG
2004
  • Start of the four-stage acquisition of France's Atys Group (world's leader in fruit preparations)
  • Acquisition of Belgium's Dirafrost (frozen fruit specialities)
  • Acquisition of Germany's Wink Group (fruit juice concentrates).
2005
  • Capital increase to raise additional funds for the continued pursuit of AGRANA's dynamic growth strategy
  • Decision for the construction of a bioethanol plant
  • Acquisition of  DSF-Deutsch-Schweizerische Früchteverarbeitung GmbH based in Constance, Germany
  • AGRANA opens the new fruit preparation plant in Serpuchov (South of Moscow)
2006
  • The reform of  the Sugar Central Market Organisation forces AGRANA to rationalize operations; affected by this rationalization process are the plants in Hohenau | Austria and Rimavska Sobota | Slovakia
  • AGRANA acquires 100 % stake of Steirerobst
  • AGRANA establishes a raw sugar refinery in Brcko | Bosnia Herzegovina jointly with the Bosnian-Austrian company SCO Studen & Co Holding | Vienna as 50 % partner
  • AGRANA acquires a 50 % stake in concentrates manufacturer Xianyang Andre Juice Co. Ltd; the company is located in the province Shaanxi | China
  • AGRANA decided to establish a sales joint venture together with the Bulgarian sugar producer Zaharni Zavodi AD; AGRANA holds a stake of 51 %
2007
  • AGRANA starts operations at new fruit preparations plant in Cabreuva | Brazil.
  • Start of pilot operations at the new bioethanol plant in Pischelsdorf | Lower Austria.
2008
  • AGRANA starts second joint venture for apple juice concentrate in Yongji | Shanxi province | China
  • Start of operations at the bioethanol plant in Pischelsdorf | Lower Austria
  • Commissioning of raw sugar refinery in Brcko | Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Capacity increase at Hungrana's isoglucose and bioethanol plant
  • AGRANA gründet ein zweites Apfelsaftkonzentrats-Joint Venture mit Xianyang Andre Juice Co. Ltd. in Yongji | Provinz Shanxi | China
2010 AGRANA expands its presence in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) with a joint-venture in fruit preparation in Egypt in addition to existing facilities in Turkey and South Africa.
2011
  • Acquisition of 100 % of the shares of Xiangyang Andre Juice Co., Ltd. and the divestment of 50 % of Yongji Andre Juice Co., Ltd.
  • AGRANA opens a production plant for fruit preparations in Johannesburg|South Africa
  • AGRANA inaugurates the second-largest sugar silo in Europe at its sugar factory in Tulln