Agrana was founded in 1988 as Investment Company for 2 and 3 starch and sugar factories respectively. It has continually grown to a worldwide organization in at least 26 countries and with approximately 55 manufacturing plants. It deals with three kinds of commodities which are interrelated: fruit, sugar and starch. It main work is to disburse fruit concentrates and preparations to companies producing soft drinks, dairy and baked products. This means even without the knowledge of this company you would be curious enough to enjoy the services it offers. Being an origin of a small country Austria this industry has received many challenges in trying to reinstate itself in the entire Europe and then become multinational. It had to compete with other organizations found in more powerful countries to gain competitive advantage; this was not achieved not until in 1989 where the Eastern and Central Europe opened their market for it bringing a significant increase in their scope of customers and also involving those big countries as members as partners. At the same time global companies such as Nestle, Coca cola and Pepsi partnered with this company further increasing it fame as stated by Farnell and McDonald (2010). With the problem of reorganization of the sugar market in Europe Agrana has been forced to focus on future strategies on how to enlarge the company according to stipulations by the European Commission.
Agrana has faced a lot of competition from already developed countries thus being forced to indulge in other marketing activities to be more competitive, other than processing sugar and starch it has currently started sanitization and processing agricultural raw products such as beet and cereals. It has also initiated fruits, biofuel and beverage processing sectors thus being diverse in its production (Agrana’s strategy, 2010). With its new management it is determined to produce eminent products and then sell
References: Agrana’s annual report 2008/09: Agrana Beteiligungs- Aktiengesellschaft Year Ended 28th February 2009. Retrieved on 23rd February 2011 from http://www.agrana.com/fileadmin/inhalte/agrana_group/annual_reports/GB2008_agrana_E_WEB.pdf Agrana Beteiligungs-AG RCB Investors’ Conference Zurs: Adding value to Nature’s gift Retrieved on 23rd February 2011 from http://www.agrana.com/fileadmin/inhalte/agrana_group/presentations/2009_2010/RCB_Invconf_Zuers_170409_WEB.pdf Agrana’s financial report: Company and Credit Information (2009). Company financial Austria. Retrieved on 23rd February 2011 from; http://www.companiesandmarkets.com/files/downloads/3_quickview_sample.pdf Agrana’s Strategy 2010 Retrieved at 23rd February from http://ir.agrana.com/en/2010/agrana-at-a-glance/agranas-strategy/ Fact Turns One. (2009) Article retrieved on 23rd February 2011 from http://www.delfji.ec.europa.eu/en/whatsnew/FACT_one.pdf Farnell, C. & MacDonald, C. A Fruitful Business: AGRANA’s fruit and concentrate products are internationally recognized and produced to the highest standards (2010) Agrana Austria Peng, W. Global Strategy: Strategizing around the globe. Foundations of global strategy. Power point presentations by Bowen, J. Columbian State Community College (2009). 1 of 18 slides. | | | Porter 's Five Forces. Strategic Management: A Model for Industry Analysis, International Center for Management and Business Administration, Inc. (2010)