A healthy transaction: Unilever enters FruFru’s shareholding | Progresiv
Unilever South Central Europe, one of the most important players in the consumer goods industry in Romania, enters FruFru's shareholding, the concept launched by entrepreneur Mihai Simiuc 13 years ago on a fresh, healthy food area. 
Founded in 2006, FruFru is the first fresh, healthy food concept in Romania and one of the leaders in innovation in the premium food retail segment. "We started out as a business of friends and family with great ideals: we have decided to change our eating habits and create a positive impact on people's lives through healthy and good food. Since then, we have been committed to these ideals, producing healthy, fresh, good ingredients, and we do not cease to innovate and evolve for better nutrition", says Mihai Simiuc.
He said for Progresiv that he still owns a 25% stake, the remaining 75% - belonging to the "passive" shareholders - being taken over by Unilever SCE. "More precisely, Johann Gabriel Heubach, Sergiu Negut, Gavril Marius Zaharia and Codruta Maria Brujan left the FruFru shareholding. I continue to be involved in the business as before, with the same responsibilities. About the strategy and what will follow, we can only speak after the Competition Council will give its approval", detailed Mihai Simiuc.
Asked about the motivation behind this decision, the FruFru founder said that there is still a "big gap between our ambitions and the actions that we manage to do in terms of environmental impact and education for a healthy diet of a large part of the population. Through this partnership, we hope to close this gap and have a much greater positive impact".
FruFru currently has a chain of 14 restaurant-stores in Bucharest, Cluj and Timisoara. FruFru products are also marketed in Mega Image, Carrefour and OMV Petrom. Last year the company reported a turnover of 34.4 million lei, up by 27% compared to the previous year, respectively a net profit of 842.626 lei, four times higher than in 2017.
At global level, the Anglo-Dutch group Unilever has been remarkable in recent years through the numerous acquisitions of companies in the "healthy" area, ranging from cosmetics to snacks.
