IVS Italia, the country’s largest automatic foodservice group, has received a €10mn loan from Credito Valtellinese (Creval) and guaranteed by Italy’s export credit agency (ECA) Sace, to fund its international expansion in France, Spain and Switzerland.

The loan will allow IVS to acquire new business units in the three markets, where it already has a presence.

The financing forms part of a recent agreement between Sace and Creval to provide €100mn in new loans to the bank’s corporate customers to support innovation and growth abroad as part of the Programma 2i per l’Impresa initiative of Sace and the European Investment Fund (EIF).

IVS has 70 branches in Italy, France, Spain and Switzerland and 150,000 vending machines in small, midsize and large companies, universities, hospitals, train and metro stations and airports. It employs over 2,200 people.