corn
Industries Centers trades corn byproducts and other grain products.
Photo by Adobe Stock.
 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S. —Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) has reached an agreement to purchase a controlling interest in Industries Centers, an Israeli company specializing in the import and distribution of agricultural feed products.

ADM_Joe Taets_ president of Ag services business unit
Joe Taets, president of ADM’s Agricultural Services business unit.

“With this investment, we are continuing to expand and enhance our core value chain, including our ability to deliver direct to the customer,” said Joe Taets, president of ADM’s Agricultural Services business unit. “Industries Centers offers an entry point into a strong, established Israeli market. We have worked with them in the past to help us import our own products into Israel, and we know them as an experienced, capable partner.”

Industries Centers, founded in 1993, trades corn byproducts and other grain products. It has offices in the Tel Aviv area, and operates a 45,000 tonnes storage facility located at the Port of Ashdod. The company has a significant and diversified customer base within Israel. It is privately owned.

“This is a great opportunity for us to reach new customers with a wide array of products, from soybean meal to grains to feed ingredients,” Taets said. “It also represents a further expansion of our destination marketing capabilities, which remain a strategic priority as we work to enhance shareholder returns by extending our value chain to the end customer.”

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval in Israel. ADM anticipates completing the deal in the coming months.

This is the latest in a series of expansions for ADM in the past few months.  In late March, the company began talks to acquire Chamtor, a French producer of wheat-based sweeteners and starches. ADM plans the transaction to close by this summer.

The company also has been focusing on its pet food and animal nutrition services in the past few months. In mid-January ADM signed an agreement to acquire Crosswind Industries, Inc., a Kansas, U.S.-based producer of dry-expanded, dual-texture, semi-dry and semi-moist treat products for pets.

The company also announced it is investing to expand and modernize its pet food and specialty livestock feed operations in Effingham, Illinois, U.S. The Effingham facility is expected to be fully operational in late 2017 or early 2018.