The purchase is subject to approval by relevant antitrust authorities.
ADM supplies customers in the confectionery, bakery, dairy and other food industries with a wide range of quality cocoa powders, cocoa liquors and cocoa butters, as well as chocolate and compound confectionery products.
“This acquisition will be an excellent fit for our business as we continue to enhance our global presence across the entire cocoa and chocolate value chain,” said Mark Bemis, vice president, ADM Cocoa and Milling. “The expertise of the people, the tradition of quality represented in Schokinag, and the scope of the physical assets make our acquisition an important step in positioning ADM to become the preferred supplier of cocoa and chocolate solutions for European customers.”
ADM Cocoa, best known for its premium De Zaan, Ambrosia, Merckens and Unicao brands of cocoa and chocolate products, is already a leading industrial chocolate manufacturer in North America.
In 2006, it acquired the assets of Classic Couverture Ltd, a UK-based chocolate manufacturer for the business-to-business market. More recently, the company opened a cocoa and chocolate manufacturing plant in Hazleton, US, and is completing a cocoa processing facility in Kumasi, Ghana.
“ADM’s acquisition of Schokinag will strengthen our position in Europe, the world’s largest chocolate market,” said Scott Walker, MD of ADM Cocoa International. “By integrating Schokinag into our cocoa business, we will better serve this steadily growing chocolate market and realise significant efficiencies in sourcing, operations and transportation.”
Schokinag, headquartered in Mannheim, Germany, manufactures chocolate and other cocoa products in Mannheim and in Manage, Belgium, and has sales offices in Ludlow, UK, and Bakersfield, California, US.
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