Foodservice equipment manufacturer Welbilt has acquired Swedish coffee machine manufacturer Crem International for SEK 1.8 billion ($224 million).
Welbilt produces a range of products for the foodservice industry including ovens, fryers and cold beverage dispensers, but this move represents Welbilt’s first entry into the hot beverage category.
Crem International has been manufacturing coffee machines for over 50 years, and sells its products to clients such as offices, restaurants, cafés and coffee shops in over 80 countries under the Coffee Queen, Expobar and Spengler brands.
The company operates three manufacturing sites in Amotfors, Sweden, Gandia, Spain, and Shanghai, China, which will be acquired by Welbilt once the acquisition is completed.
Welbilt estimates that the acquisition will close early in the second quarter of 2018, and will help to drive the company’s growth outside of the US market.
Hubertus Muehlhaeuser, Welbilt’s President and CEO said: “The acquisition of Crem International is the first step in realizing our ambition to complement our organic growth strategy with select bolt-on acquisitions.
“Crem expands our full-line of commercial foodservice equipment coverage by adding the fast-growing hot coffee category to our portfolio, which gives Welbilt the broadest portfolio of hot and cold beverage equipment of any company in the market.
“Crem is very strong in Europe and Asia, supporting our strategic objective of expanding our presence in these two important regions.
“We foresee significant cross-selling opportunities between Crem’s and Welbilt’s respective customer bases in those regions, and see further opportunity to bring Crem to Welbilt’s customer base in the US and include it as a core offering in our fitkitchenSM system solutions.”
Sebastian Lindstroem, CEO of Crem International added: “We at Crem International are delighted to join forces with Welbilt.
“Jointly with our shareholders we have built Crem into one of the global leaders in professional coffee machines with a unique breadth of technology and solutions with a highly innovative and competitive product portfolio.
“Within Welbilt’s strong family of brands and products, we will be able to further expand the reach of our product portfolio through improved market access and our current customers will benefit from Welbilt’s expertise in new product development and manufacturing process improvement.”
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