JBT Corporation is certainly living up to its promise, announced earlier this year of “aggressively and proactively pursuing strategic companies that deepen existing JBT capabilities or expand JBT’s presence”, with its recent acquisition frenzy in the field of food and beverage technology.
In particular, as part of its Next Level 2017 acquisition growth target, JBT was looking for mergers with or acquisitions of “protein processing and liquid foods niche leaders and companies that would strengthen the core” and allow JBT to “achieve value creation/synergies”.
By January 2014, the company had already purchased FormCook, bringing the long-established Swedish manufacturer of Teflon contact and combination cookers into the fold, and establishing in particular its double-sided contact cooker, designed to cook thinner products with flat surfaces to JBT’s portfolio of technologies for protein processing. It popped ICS Solutions into its acquisition bag later in 2014, adding further high-capacity food preservation equipment to its offering, in particular complementary hydromatic continuous sterilizer technology. Expanding still further in the poultry, beef, pork and seafood markets, JBT swept on Wolf-tec Inc, which produces equipment focused on ingredient preparation, blending, injection, marinating, massaging and portioning, to conclude a busy year.
Yet, before consolidation plans could begin in earnest, JBT confirmed its acquisition, just six months later, of Dutch giant Stork Food & Dairy Systems BV. With this coup, JBT absorbed Stork’s expertise, knowhow and technology for integrated processing and filling lines for the dairy, juice, food processing and pharmaceutical (neutraceutical) industries; plus other technologies such as (aseptic) filling, (UHT) processing, plastic bottle making and packaging technology of liquid food products, which Stork itself had already begun expanding into.
And now, before the ink has dried on the Stork purchase, JBT has announced its agreement to acquire A&B Process Systems, the leading provider of processing systems for the beverage and food industries that specialises in particular in the design, manufacturing, automation and installation of liquid foods turnkey production systems.
So what next – a nice period of quiet consolidation and incorporation of new systems and personnel? Oh no!
Tom Giacomini, JBT’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, noted: “This transaction – like the four companies we acquired over the past year and a half – supports our Next Level strategy of acquiring leading companies that strengthen our protein processing and liquid foods portfolios. While we have significantly exceeded our Next Level 2017 acquisition growth target, we will maintain our disciplined pursuit of strategic opportunities.”
So, looks like it’s not over yet for this dynamic food and beverage technology organisation. Only time and the completion of a full and complex consolidation process will tell how successful these and any future acquisitions have been. One thing for sure, these acquisitions have changed the landscape for food and beverage companies looking for protein or liquid food processing technologies. Let’s hope that JBT management is now up for the task of making things work, of integrating the new into the existing, and building on its newly expanded offering to the food and beverage industry. Aristotle did say that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” – I sincerely hope that this will be the case, for all concerned in this speedy expansion.
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