Kerry acquires ingredients firm

KERRY GROUP has acquired a German-owned sweet ingredients company.

It said that this deal is unlikely to mark the end of its buying activity for the current year.

The Tralee-headquartered international food giant yesterday announced the purchase of Hochheim-based SuCrest GmbH; a pan-European leader in the area of sweet ingredient provision to the bakery, ice cream, confectionery, cereal and snack sectors of the food industry.

The deal also expands Kerry’s geographical presence, as SuCrest has operations in Belarus and Russia, as well as Germany.

Although Kerry hasn’t disclosed how much it is paying for the company, the German firm generated annual revenues of €50 million in 2010.

The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval, but is expected to be formally completed by the end of this year.

SuCrest will basically broaden Kerry’s existing sweet systems and flavours portfolio; adding things such as compound coating capabilities and will boost the Irish group’s technology and customer base.

A spokesperson for Kerry said, as the group still has around €400m to hand to spend on acquisitions this year, more purchases could well be made before the end of 2011.

Earlier this year, Kerry bought Britain-based frozen food company Headland Foods — a deal which is part of a competition probe in Britain — and the global flavours division of US agri-food group Cargill, as well as a number of smaller bolt-on buys.

Last month Kerry reported a strong set of first-half results in the face of tough trading conditions, and raw material and input cost rises — with pre-tax profits up 8% on a year-on-year basis and group revenue rising by 8.4% to €2.6 billion.

On the back of those figures, Kerry chief executive Stan McCarthy said that the business was well-placed to capitalise on future industry consolidation opportunities, adding that “we’re quite busy in that regard”.