MEXICO-Mexican bakery giant, Grupo Bimbo, has acquired Romanian bread maker Vel Pitar from New York-based private-equity fund CHL capital.

Vel Pitar was formed in 2001 through the merger of four NCH-owned companies with operations in bakery, milling, and retail.

The milling operations were placed under Sapte Spice company, which will remain in NCH’s portfolio as they were not part of the Grupo Bimbo deal.

The transaction has been finalized and is to be publicly announced at the Mexican Stock Exchange later this week, according to Profit. Ro.

Vel Pitar company is run by Romanian management and it is the largest bread and bakery producer in Romania employing over 2,5000 people.

The company owns 12 factories and over 170 bakeries that produce and branded bread, rolls, and sweet treats such as donuts and pretzels supplied to the retail channel.

Grupo Bimbo, Vel Pitar’s new owner, is active in 33 countries and territories in America, Europa, Asia, and Africa.

In Europe, it runs factories in Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, the UK, Russia, Switzerland, and Ukraine. It has 197 bakeries, with an annual business revenue of about USD 15 billion.

The acquisition proves strategic for Grupo Bimbo, which currently has no operations in Romania but has been expanding rapidly.

Last year, Grupo Bimbo acquired St.Pierre Groupe, a UK-based bakery company known for its brioche buns and other bakery products including brioche bagels, brioche sub rolls, and croissants.

In 2021, Grupo Bimbo announced two purchases – Indian bakery business Kitty Bread and US popcorn maker Popcornopolis. The move for Kitty Bread came eight months after the group snapped up another Indian baker, Modern Foods.

Grupo Bimbo has also recently bought bakery assets in Brazil from Swiss peer Aryzta along with US cookies maker Emmy’s Organics.

Grupo Bimbo reported its most recent results in October for the third quarter. Sales rose 20% from a year earlier to MXN102.8bn (US$5.1bn). Operating income increased 37.6% to MXN11bn, while adjusted EBITDA was 15.2% higher at MXN14.5bn. The overall net income rose by 50.8% to MXN6.1bn (US$324M).

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