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Danish Crown is set to acquire a 120,000-square-metre site with 14,000 square metres of buildings from Skare Meat Packers on 1 April. The majority of the buildings at the site – located in Vejen, southern Denmark – were built for food production purposes. Danish Crown will invest in the installation of equipment to meet its needs and is therefore not acquiring any production machinery or inventory as part of the deal. Søren Eriksen, group production director at Danish Crown, commented: “The buildings came up for sale and it opened some unexpected opportunities for us because we were faced with having to build a new building in Denmark, and not only would it be more expensive for us, it would also have a significantly longer time horizon, so we quickly agreed with the previous owner”. Eriksen added that it could take up to a year before Danish Crown is ready to start production in Vejen and so the company is unable to comment on how many employees it will need. The acquisition marks part of Danish Crown’s ‘Feeding the Future’ strategy to raise the value of its shareholders' deliveries of pigs and cattle. Jais Valeur, group CEO of Danish Crown, said: “We are making this investment with the aim of strengthening our innovative power in Northern Europe. We have a clear goal of being able to offer our customers in Northern Europe more new products, and we have long had a strategy to make a stronger mark on, for example, the market for meal solutions, which is in constant growth.” He added: “The purchase of the buildings also opens other opportunities for us, so we will therefore spend the coming months making a detailed plan”. The parties have agreed that the financial terms of the acquisition will not be disclosed.