Australia’s largest potato producer, Mitolo Family Farms, has sold a majority stake in the business to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, as Kim Berry reports for Food & Drink Business. MD Frank Mitolo says the company’s growth plans require extra capital, but the family will retain a “significant ownership stake”.
Ontario Teachers has had a presence in Australia since 2018, through its AustOn agricultural arm. AustOn employs teams to manage almond grower Aroona Farms in South Australia and Victoria, Avocado enterprise Jasper Farms in Western Australia, and apples and stone fruit producer Pomona Valley in Victoria.
Mitolo Family Farms is a vertically integrated grower, harvester, packer and marketer of fresh potatoes and onions in Australia. It has 11 brands of potatoes on the market and employs more than 700 people.
Ontario Teachers’ senior managing director Natural Resources, Christopher Metrakos, said the fund was keen to help Mitolo Family Farms grow its ambitions and increase the quality and reliability that made Mitolo a category leader.
Source: Food & Drink Business. Read the full story here
Photo: Credit Mitolo Family Farms website
Related: Canadian fund buys stake in the country’s largest potato grower
