At the time of purchase, JBS was adamant Scott would remain listed, JBS was not intending to move to a 100% takeover and Scott's head office would remain in Dunedin.
The JBS Australia takeover, worth more than $40million, was completed a year ago, which allowed Scott to pay off $16.6million debt and invest in new acquisitions. And as of February it retained almost $33million cash.
Craigs Investment partners broker Peter McIntyre said several components had underpinned the rising share price, including the debt reduction and having made accretive company acquisitions.
''There's been a steady climb in the share price since JBS came on board,'' he said.
A year ago Scott shares were trading at $1.65.
Last week, in its half-year result, Scott reported strong operating cash inflow of $10.2million, with $32.8million cash in hand, of which $25million was from the JBS capital raising, after repayment of all bank debt.
''Scott's debt was starting to become significant. It was good to have the new capital come on board,'' he said.
Scott's managing director Chris Hopkins said last week 2017's growth had been greatly assisted by the integration of recent acquisitions, plus uptake of the company's own developed technologies.
Last October Scott purchased the business assets of Bladestop Pty Ltd, being entirely the intellectual property rights to its bandsaw safety technology, with an upfront cash payment of $A6million, plus the sellers would share in future Bladestop earnings, for an agreed period.
The deferred portion of the purchase price was estimated to be $A4million.
Mr McIntyre said Scott was in a position to benefit in the future from JBS' relationships with its own subsidiaries and other companies in the global food supply chain.
''They've now got the capital flexibility to expand, and [also] had a good first-half result,'' he said.
Scott's revenue for the first half was $56.7million, up 32% on the $42.8million reported in the first half of 2016.
''They now have entry into bigger and larger markets, which gives them a bit more scaleability,'' Mr McIntyre said.
He said Scott's had a ''bright outlook'' for the remaining half year ahead, noting that at present it had a ''solid order book''.
Mr Hopkins noted in last week's half-year report there continued to be a significant trend towards automation and robotics around the world, but he added a caution that the international markets it operated in remained volatile and unpredictable.
''Scott's strategy to grow our skill base and to establish critical mass in our key markets of Australasia, North America, China and Europe means we are well positioned to take advantage of and manage the impact of these trends and risks,'' Mr Hopkins said.
Scott's Australasian sales were up up 34% from the previous year because of the closer sharing of skills and resources on projects between Australia and New Zealand, he said.
Mr Hopkins said the Australasian manufacturing segment had also benefited from the Bladestop purchase, which sat alongside Scott's expanding suite of food processing applications, which focus on improving safety, efficiency and yield.
