Danish Crown subsidiary takes majority stake in Shanghai Natural Casing

Food acquisition news : DAT-Schaub, a subsidiary of global meat processing company Danish Crown is all set to expand its operations in China with the acquisition of a majority stake in Shanghai Natural Casing Company, a natural casings manufacturer, for an undisclosed price.

Based in Denmark, DAT-Schaub provides natural and artificial casings and ingredients to the food industry.

Danish Crown says that the acquisition of Shanghai Natural Casing stake will help it in expanding its capabilities in processing of natural casings for producing sausage and salami, particularly from pigs and lambs.

Commenting on Danish Crown acquisition of Shanghai Natural Casing stake, Jan Roelsgaard – CEO of DAT-Schaub, said: “China is the centre for selecting and processing in a labour-intensive industry like ours. At the same time, the country is well positioned geographically because the raw materials come from Europe, the US and Australia.

“There is a strong infrastructure to and from the Shanghai area, and the employees are meticulous and quality conscious, which is essential in our business.”

Danish Crown subsidiary DAT-Schaub takes majority stake in Shanghai Natural Casing. Photo courtesy of Danish Crown.

Shanghai Natural Casing processes natural casings for the US-based DCW Casing in which Danish Crown has a controlling stake through DAT-Schaub. The acquisition of the majority stake in the Chinese natural casings manufacturer will help DAT-Schaub with deep knowledge of it while enlarging its capacity to handle increasing volume of raw materials gained by the Danish firm.

DAT-Schaub purchases and cleans sets of casings sourced from pigs and sheeps from across the world which are cleaned and salted at the abattoirs. After this, they are exported to China or Portugal, where the Danish Crown subsidiary has facilities to handle the selecting and processing of the natural casings for sausage and salami.

DAT-Schaub had snapped up majority stakes in five firms in South America and Spain in the last one year while establishing a joint venture in Spain to increase its activities.

Jais Valeur – Group CEO, Danish Crown said:  “DAT-Schaub has a strong brand and sells its products all over the world. Over the past financial year, the company generated a record-setting profit. In my view, this is a perfect set off to become the undisputed market leader globally, which is also our clear – and definitely realistic – ambition.”

Earlier this month, Danish Crown acquired DK-Foods, a Danish pepperoni topping producer which provides the pizza topping to pizza manufacturers across Europe.