De Kuyper Royal Distillers and Lucas Bols are set to exit their production and bottling joint venture, with the Avandis business poised to assume new owners in the form of Refresco.
The entity, based in the Dutch city of Zoetermeer near The Hague, will retain a contract manufacturing arrangement for the pair. Avandis operates seven distilled beverages production lines at the facility.
Refresco, which operates predominantly in the soft drinks category for production and packaging, will pay EUR25m (US$24.3m) for Avandis, a fee that will be “adjusted” for the business’ current debt level, which stood at EUR15m as of the end of March.
De Kuyper and Lucas Bols both reiterated their intentions to focus efforts on building their owned cocktail-focused brands going forward.
Last month, De Kuyper lined up the purchase of the Archers brand from Diageo, shoring up its dominance of the peach-flavoured liqueurs sub-segment.
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