DSM (Heerlen, Netherlands) and CSM (Diemen, Netherlands) have reached agreement on the takeover by DSM of the bakery ingredients business of Fher Productos Basicos para Alimentacion SA (Barcelona), the Spanish subsidiary of CSM Bakery Ingredients. Under the agreement, DSM will take over Fher’s products, formulations and brand names as well as market shares in Spain and Portugal. Fher has sales of over NLG 10 million and employs about 20 people. The Fher products will be added to the portfolio of Gist-Brocades SA (Barcelona), a subsidiary of the DSM Bakery Ingredients business group. The employees of Fher will be relocated.
The acquisition will reinforce the strong market position DSM Bakery Ingredients has in Spain and Portugal. From CSM’s point of view, Fher was not big enough to secure a leading position in the Spanish market on its own.
DSM Bakery Ingredients’ product range includes yeast, bread improvers, pastry ingredients and bakery enzymes. DSM Bakery Ingredients is one of the world’s leading producers of bakery ingredients and the second largest producer of fresh yeast and bread improvers in Western Europe. It is also the world’s No. 2 player in the field of instant yeast.
The business group, which has operations worldwide, has sales of over NLG 850 million (EUR 390 million) and employs 2,400 people. Its subsidiary Gist-Brocades SA supplies bread ingredients to the Spanish and Portuguese markets from its recently opened production facility in Cornellá, Barcelona. Its activities further include the sale of baker’s yeast from the business group’s Portuguese production site on the Spanish market.
DSM – with sales of NLG 14 billion (EUR 6.5 billion) and a workforce of 23,000 – is a major supplier to the food industry, which accounts for approximately 10% of its overall sales.