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Guayaquil, Ecuador, June 19, 2012—
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has signed an agreement with Industrias Lácteas Toni S.A., a leading milk and dairy producer in Ecuador’s Andean region, to support the company’s expansion into low-income and remote consumer markets.
Toni, a subsidiary to Holding Tonicorp, will use IFC’s $30 million senior loan to relocate and modernize its main dairy-production plant and to develop new low-cost and nutrition-rich products. IFC’s financing also will enable the company to expand its distribution network to reach remote areas of Ecuador.
“IFC investment will help bolster our production and strengthen our capacity to deliver basic dairy products to low-income consumers, especially in remote regions of Ecuador that are difficult to access,” said Francisco Alarcón, Tonicorp’s CEO.
In 2011, Toni sourced raw milk from nearly 2,400 independent farmers, and reached close to 94,000 points of sale with 300 trucks that delivered the product from 19 distribution centers. IFC’s investment will help expand that reach into low-income areas of the greatest need. The decision to finance Toni is in line with IFC’s strategy to increase access to high-quality nutritional products in low-income communities.
“Our intention is also to support the growth of Ecuador’s agribusiness sector in order to expand economic opportunities for local farmers and small businesses along supply and distribution chains,” said Oscar Chemerinski, IFC Director for Manufacturing, Agribusiness, and Services in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Agribusiness is one of the most important sectors of Ecuador’s economy in terms of direct and indirect employment and contribution to gross domestic product. Within this sector, dairy is an important subsector and one of the fastest growing and most dynamic in the country. It plays an important role as a main component of the national food basket. It also promotes the development of the country’s rural areas by providing more than 10,000 jobs, particularly to subsistence and lower-income, raw-milk producers.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. We help developing countries achieve sustainable growth by financing investment, providing advisory services to businesses and governments, and mobilizing capital in the international financial markets. In fiscal 2011, amid economic uncertainty across the globe, we helped our clients create jobs, strengthen environmental performance, and contribute to their local communities—all while driving our investments to an all-time high of nearly $19 billion. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
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About Toni
With headquarters in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Toni is one of the country’s leading dairy companies. It produces a wide range of dairy products such as yogurt, flavored milk, UHT milk and cream cheese, other non-dairy products and beverages. In 2011, Toni processed close to 58 million liters of raw milk into 90 million kilograms of finished dairy and non-dairy products. Toni is a subsidiary of Holding Tonicorp, which also owns a packaging factory (Plásticos Ecuatorianos S.A.) and a distribution operation (Dipor S.A.). Tonicorp employs about 3,000 people, and became a publicly traded company in 2011. For more information, please visit
www.tonisa.com
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