Danish Crown acquires Danish pepperoni topping producer DK-Foods

Food acquisition news : Meat processing company Danish Crown has acquired DK-Foods, a Danish pepperoni topping producer which supplies the popular pizza topping to pizza manufacturers across Europe.

The financial terms of Danish Crown acquisition of DK-Foods have not been disclosed.

Through the acquisition, the Danish meat processing company aims to become a market leader for pepperoni toppings for pizzas in Europe.

Danish Crown says that DK-Foods will function as a separate business unit and will come under its subsidiary Tulip Food Company.

Commenting on Danish Crown acquisition of DK-Foods, Kasper Lenbroch – CEO at Tulip Food Company, said: “We’re delighted that the deal has fallen into place. In acquiring DK-Foods, we are acquiring a focused and unique company which, since its establishment in 2003, has enjoyed impressive growth.

“At Tulip Food Company, our strategic focus internationally is on four categories: bacon, canned products, snacks and pizza toppings, so we’re looking forward to incorporating a well-run, agile and fast-moving business.”

Danish Crown acquisition of DK-Foods. Photo courtesy of Danish Crown.

For quite some years, Danish Crown has been the preferred supplier of raw materials for DK-Foods. In 2016, the Danish pepperoni topping producer divested 70% of its shares to Maj Invest Equity with the remaining 30% retained by Steffen Ramsgaard and Per Fischer Larsen, who make up the executive board of DK-Foods.

Per Fischer Larsen and Steffen Ramsgaard, commenting on Danish Crown acquisition of DK-Foods, said: “Over the past 15 years, we have evolved from being a niche producer into a very significant market player, and as part of Danish Crown, we see new and great opportunities for continuing this positive growth.

“We’ll be strengthened through the upstream integration of raw materials and given the group’s ambition of of becoming a leading player in the wider toppings category, we’ll become an even stronger partner for both our current and future customers.”

Tulip Food Company is into production of a wide variety of pizza toppings that includes pepperoni, at its factory in Svenstrup in Denmark. Following the acquisition of DK-Foods, Tulip Food Company is set to grow its production capacity considerably.

On Danish Crown acquisition of DK-Foods, Jais Valeur – Group CEO of Danish Crown, said: “DK-Foods presents an opportunity to intensify our group’s strategic focus on pizza toppings by becoming the market leader in pepperoni.

“The pizza market is growing globally, and we see considerable potential in DK-Foods. We’ll be able to process a larger proportion of our own raw materials, thereby boosting our growth and earnings potential for the benefit of our owners – the Danish farmers.”

Danish Crown acquisition of DK-Foods follows the global meat processing company’s acquisition of Polish meat company Gzella Meat Group last month through its subsidiary Sokolow Group.