Taste of Italy 2, a private equity fund specialized in the agri-food sector managed by DeA Capital Alternative Funds SGR, and Alcedo V, a fund managed by Alcedo SGR, have jointly acquired 100% of Demetra SpA, a manufacturer of agricultural machinery, with the aim to create a leading pole in the sector. Taste of Italy and Alcedo will support the development of the Group with an important investment plan in production processes and innovation, with the expansion of the sales network in European and non-European markets and with a program of acquisitions aimed at completing the range of products covering all the main phases of agricultural work both in open and closed fields (soil preparation, sowing, transplanting, crop protection, harvesting). The acquisitions program will always maintain the brands' identity and independence within the platform.

Demetra will be held, through the parent company Persefone Srl, by Taste of Italy 2 and Alcedo V with 50% each and the two funds will share equal governance. "The agricultural machinery sector is an Italian excellence but is still characterized by excessive fragmentation", declares Filippo Amidei , managing director of Taste of Italy. "We have identified in Demetra the ideal platform for an ambitious consolidation project aimed at international markets" . "The partnership will make it possible to give a further boost to the growth of the Group, with particular reference to the presence in European and international markets, already widely covered to date - comments Alessandro Zanet, investment director of Alcedo -. Together we aim to consolidate the Group as an independent operator leader in Europe in the agricultural equipment sector, which can play an important role in the growing trend of mechanization and technological innovation in the agricultural sector, in which Italian and European companies have always represented excellence".

“Smart agriculture is the imminent future: an epochal transformation that makes our machinery capable of providing valuable information to the user in real time to improve the productivity, efficiency and sustainability of field operations”, he said on the side. his Luciano Paiola, managing director of Demetra. "We are aware that the development of intelligent agricultural machines requires cutting-edge technologies that only medium-large companies are able to use. We are grateful to the shareholders who share this path of dimensional and technological growth with us".

Demetra was born in 2018 from the merger of Agrimaster and Breviagri, two historic Italian manufacturers of agricultural machinery operating (respectively since 1984 and 1949) under the homonymous brands. Under the Agrimaster brand, the company produces mulchers and mechanical arms for the maintenance of green areas in agriculture; under the Breviagri brand, the company produces harrows, hoes and weeders for working the land. The company manages two plants based in Italy, respectively in Molinella (BO) and Nogara (VR). In recent years Demetra has grown both in the national and international markets, establishing itself as a leader in the maintenance and tillage segment, with a strong market position in France, Italy and Germany and a presence in more than 80 countries.

In October 2022, Demetra acquired the Danish company Dalbo A/S, founded in 1948 and specialized in the production of rollers and cultivators for seedbed preparation. Dalbo has a significant market presence in the UK, France, Germany and Scandinavia. The company operates a factory near Billund in southern Denmark and has sales offices in the UK and France.

The Group currently has a turnover of more than 60 million euros, generated for over 80% on foreign markets.