DSM in Talks to Acquire Cargill’s Cultures & Enzymes Unit

Royal DSM said it is working to acquire Cargill’s cultures and enzymes business, a global manufacturer of cultures and enzymes for the dairy and meat industries with manufacturing operations in Wisconsin and France. Its new products pipeline is built on three pillars of technology: culture texture toolbox, fast acidification for cheese yield improvements and culture flavor systems. The business generates net sales of about €45 million per year with approximately 200 employees.
The global market for cultures and enzymes is valued at more than €1 billion, growing steadily at more than 5% per annum. A possible combination of the Cargill cultures and enzymes business with the dairy business of DSM Food Specialties would be highly complementary, creating a strong global player and enabling DSM to propel sales growth as well as capture sizable synergies in global manufacturing, customer reach, as well as innovation capabilities in biotechnology and SG&A.
A successful acquisition of the Cultures and Enzymes business of Cargill would be the eighth acquisition in the nutrition cluster since DSM announced its corporate strategy “DSM in motion: driving focused growth” in September 2010.
Both companies are now engaging in the information and consultation process with employee representative bodies in the relevant countries.