The Weiner family from the United States is negotiating to purchase the real estate and facilities of the Vita Galilee Fruit factory in Hatzor HaGlilit for $52 million.
The sellers, the Kuperly and Shalom families – who own real estate businesses and the Half Price supermarket chain – are reportedly planning to sell the Pri HaGalil brand separately. While the deal has not yet been finalized, sources close to the company say there are other interested buyers as well.
Jonathan and Ayelet Weiner, Orthodox Zionists from New York, own Chestnut Holdings, a major real estate company with over 100 residential, office and commercial properties. For the past decade, the family has been acquiring industrial and logistics real estate in Israel’s peripheral regions for leasing. Their first deal in the country was purchasing the Toot Candy factory in Migdal HaEmek about 10 years ago. Since then, they have acquired numerous additional assets.
Recent transactions by the Weiner family include the purchase of the building and land of the Plastronics electronics factory in Ofakim, as well as leasing a property in Rosh Pina to Arnir, a defense-sector electronics manufacturer. The latter property was acquired from a court-appointed receiver after the previous tenant, a door manufacturer, went bankrupt. The family operates in Israel through a local representative and owns an office in Tel Aviv.
Who will lease the factory?
If the deal goes through, the tomato paste manufacturer Prinir – owned by the Tsaskala family and the Nakash brothers – will lease the factory. This move would mark Prinir’s first foray into the frozen vegetable market, a sector dominated by Sunfrost. If Prinir does not lease the entire facility, the remaining space will be rented out to another company.
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“We plan to hire around 70 employees initially, and if the deal is finalized we’re ready to move in the very next day,” said Tomer Tsaskala, CEO and owner of Prinir, whose annual revenue reaches 100 million shekels ($27 million). “We are eager to enter the frozen vegetable market and compete in an industry currently controlled by Sunfrost and importers. We’ll start with staple vegetables like corn and peas and expand from there. I believe we can make it profitable because some of our overhead costs will be shared with Pri HaGalil, and we know how to operate efficiently.”
Prinir has been embroiled in a long-running dispute with the Kuperly and Shalom families, which has prevented its products from being sold in Half Price supermarkets. The conflict dates back 11 years when Prinir sold its Miloz subsidiary to Pri HaGalil, which later shut it down. Prinir has since sued Pri HaGalil’s owners, alleging they failed to pay half of the agreed-upon sum in that deal.
Pri HaGalil has been shut down for nearly a year after years of financial losses. Its owners blame the factory’s struggles on the reduction of import tariffs, which they claim created unfair competition.