Nutricia Deva: tracing new horizons for quality food

In 2017, the plant was acquired by Arx Equity Partners, a private equity firm that supports the growth of mid-sized companies in Central Europe, with the backing of the EIF.

Under new management, Nutricia Deva has continued to produce the same high-quality recipes, but now under their own brand name (Deva) and also supplying other private-labels, exporting to 16 different countries from their base in Nove Mesto nad Metuji in the Czech Republic.

In making the transition however, Arx was faced with one important challenge: Having been a subsidiary thus far, the company had no management structure of its own. Arx’s first priority was therefore to fill all the empty roles, from General Manager to CFO, and from the IT department to a sales team - among others. “The company didn’t have any of these structures set up. There was no strategic function. So we invested in recruiting some very capable staff and establishing the various missing departments. Then we were able to focus on growth.” explains Radil Stefovski, member of the supervisory board of Nutricia Deva.

The investment was critical in the company’s survival. “Without it, the company would most probably have had to shut down, and more than one hundred jobs would have been lost,” says Radil. But things are now looking up for the company: “Now that we have established the Deva brand, we are looking into selling to retailers outside Europe like South America, Asia and Africa. The company is also looking to develop new products like pouches, extending our packaging capabilities and moving away from the current focus on glass jars.”