USA – Specialty ingredient company, RiceBran Technologies has announced that it has completed the acquisition of the assets and operations of Golden Ridge Rice Mills at a consideration of approximately US$7.8 million.

The transaction also includes Golden Ridge’s milling and rice bran stabilization facility in Wynne, Arkansas, U.S.

The Company expects Golden Ridge to add approximately $20 million in revenue and EBITDA in 2019 with plans to expand capacity that targets to increase profits by 30%.

“The acquisition of Golden Ridge is a very important part of our strategic plan to grow the business and build long-term value for our stockholders,” said Brent Rystrom, President and Chief Executive Officer.

“Golden Ridge gives us a substantial presence in Arkansas, where more U.S. rice is produced and processed than any other rice-producing state, and provides a source of stabilized rice bran (SRB) that is closer to many of our customers in the Midwest and Eastern U.S., with active and attractive freight lanes.

It also gives RBT control over our milling scheduling that will enable us to produce SRB based on our production needs which should permit us to significantly improve supply chain management and improve gross margins in our SRB business.”

RiceBran announced plans to acquire Golden Ridge last month and expects the added mill to be an important component of its S.R.B. supply in the Arkansas region.

The company also hopes to use the platform to develop new products derived from S.R.B. to expand growth opportunities.

“In addition to these benefits, the Golden Ridge acquisition will leverage our sales force by expanding our product portfolio to initially include the supply of rice, brown rice, brewers’ rice and brokens.

These are all synergistic ingredients for our target customers which should enable our team to build more broad-based customer relationships.

The site also has considerable room for expansion to increase our SRB production capacity as well to house additional product development capacity to further expand our product portfolio.”

In its third-quarter financial results ended September 30, RiceBran sustained a loss of US$1.62 million while net sales increased to US$3.46 million from US$3.44 million.