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Le Duff Group has announced the acquisition of Spain's Panamar Bakery Group, marking the largest single transaction in the French conglomerate's history.
The deal, concluded on 23 March 2026, brings a business turning over €600 million annually, with 2,600 employees, into the Le Duff fold.
Panamar Bakery Group operates as a manufacturer and distributor of frozen bakery, Viennese pastry and pâtisserie products, exporting to more than 20 countries. Its catalogue runs to over 1,200 references across retail, food service and hospitality channels, supported by an integrated production and distribution network.
The Spanish company is family-run, with Isabel Martinez continuing as president under the new ownership structure.
For Bridor, the industrial baking subsidiary of Le Duff, the acquisition is the latest move in an aggressive multi-continent expansion programme. Bridor's turnover has risen from €750 million in 2021 to €2.5 billion in 2026, with a stated target of doubling that figure again by 2031.
The Panamar deal gives it a manufacturing base on the Iberian Peninsula and extends its reach across the 100 countries it currently supplies.
The Panamar acquisition sits within a broader capital investment programme that has been reshaping Bridor's production geography since 2021.
In North America: a Montreal plant expansion, the 2022 acquisition of Lecoq Cuisine in Connecticut, a 2025 expansion at Vineland in New Jersey, a new facility under construction in Salt Lake City, opening this year, and a further plant planned for Texas in 2028.
In Europe: acquisitions of Panidor (Portugal, 2022) and Pandriks (Netherlands, 2024), ongoing investment at plants in Fulda and Meppel and new builds in Falaise (France) and Switzerland, both in 2025.
Asia-Pacific saw the acquisition of Laurent Bakery across Australia and New Zealand in 2025, alongside the expansion of Bridor's Chinese plant.
The financial structuring of the Panamar transaction involved BNP, Crédit Agricole CIB, RaboBank and several French agricultural and regional finance institutions. Legal and advisory work was handled by Bird & Bird, EY, PwC and Linklaters on the purchaser side; Garrigues, KPMG and Houlihan Lokey advised the sellers. Regulatory clearance is still pending.
Bridor supplies approximately 90,000 restaurants, hotels and food service operators worldwide, including properties rated four stars and above.
The company's chef collaboration programme, with Pierre Hermé, La Maison Lenôtre and Frédéric Lalos among others, positions its premium frozen offer at the upper end of the food service market. Panamar's network in southern Europe adds both production capacity and a regional distribution infrastructure that Bridor did not previously hold.
Le Duff Group, which marks its 50th anniversary in 2026, also operates Gourming (ready meals) and the catering chains Brioche Dorée, Del Arte and La Madeleine. The group is targeting consolidated turnover of €3.5 billion across all divisions.
The completion of this deal will be watched closely by buyers across the industrial bakery sector.
Consolidation at this scale, combining two established frozen bakery manufacturers with complementary geographies, could reflect the direction that volume premium baking appears to be heading: fewer, larger operators with factory networks spanning multiple continents.