‘Leading’ sausage casings supplier buys five firms
The sausage skin subsidiary of Danish Crown now controls Brazilian company ESB; Colombia’s Tricolsa; Chile-based firms Insuban and Indexna; and multi-species Spanish casings firm Agrimares.
All four South American companies are part of Agrimares group, hence why the takeovers were announced as one.
These acquisitions – the value of which remains confidential – set up a strong position in South America as Danish Crown aims to make DAT-Schaub the world’s leading producer of natural sausage casings.
‘New situation’ for DAT-Schaub
As well as giving a Danish Crown company its first physical presence in South America, DAT-Schaub will secure access to raw materials, as all four companies own factories.
Management will remain in place at all acquired companies – a strategy DAT-Schaub has said it will retain as it hunts for more companies to buy. Manuel and Daniel Céspedes, from the founding family of Agrimares, will remain minority shareholders in Agrimares, Insuban, Indexna and Tricolsa. Daniel Berlitz is to retain a stake in Brazilian business ESB.
“Having operations in South American is a very new situation for us,” said Jan Roelsgaard, CEO of DAT-Schaub. “It’s a continent where people eat a lot of sausages and salami, so establishing activities in South America is a natural step in our efforts to grow.”
Roelsgaard said his expectations were “high” following the takeovers, which demonstrate Danish Crown is continuing to follow its year-old 4WD strategy, aiming to make the company an all-terrain vehicle that can move in any direction the market demands. Since the launch of the strategy – which should be read as both ‘forward’ and ‘four-wheel drive’ – many business areas have been busy with investments and divestments, including the US$230m sale of Plumerose USA to JBS.
DAT-Schaub sold its Nordic business ABC to Orkla Food Ingredients in October 2017 and entered Spain in April through a joint venture with Vicente Gallent SL.
“We have clear ambition for DAT-Schaub to be both the world’s largest and the world’s leading supplier of natural casings for sausages and salami,” said Danish Crown CEO Jais Valeur.
“The company delivered record results for the financial year which we have just closed, and we are now taking the first step towards becoming the undisputed market leader globally.”
