Pidy, the Belgian-based specialist in ready-to-fill sweet and savoury products, has been acquired by the family-owned French operator Biscuits Bouvard Group.
The takeover will allow current Pidy CEO Thierry Dehaeck to take a step back from the day-to-day business activities while ensuring the group’s further growth. Dehaeck will continue to provide advice on a consultancy basis during the initial months of the takeover.
Based in Ypres, Pidy has become a leader in the production of baked puff pastry with production sites in Belgium, France and the United States. There are also five sales organisations for the Benelux, France, UK, US and export markets, all of which deliver services and market support to customers in more than fifty countries, Pidy said. The company made a turnover of €40 million.
Biscuits Bouvard is an operator in the private-label biscuit sector with a strong market presence in Europe. The company has 1,200 employees, split across seven production centres in France and one in Italy, and a combined turnover of €250 million.
Robert Whittle, Pidy UK’s general manager will be spearheading the Bouvard/Pidy UK operation and is positive about the benefits that the takeover can bring.
He said: “Being part of a larger family owned group brings the UK business a huge wealth of potential. Plans for the future roll-out of private-label biscuits bring just one significant development to our expansion plans but moreover it has been made clear, from the plans presented by the Bouvard management, that they see pastry innovation as the key to continued growth in the Pidy range with investment plans in NPD, plant and machinery having already begun in earnest.”
With Bouvard’s key interest lying in Europe, Pidy’s UK and American operations will be of significant value in expanding Pidy and Bouvard’s combined interest in the “relatively untapped” US market and develop both their biscuit and pastry operations.
Whittle continued: “We would like to reassure our customers that there will be no changes in business names or personnel in this deal. Pidy UK’s 40% growth over the last three years is set to continue in the pastry side of the business and it is very much business as normal.”
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