Katjes International acquires stake in Joseph Manner
The group acquired the stake from Polish confectionery firm Wawel.
Josef Manner & Comp. AG was founded in 1890 and posted revenues of around €200m ($224m) last year. The Manner family has a majority holding in the company.
‘Largest Austrian confectionery firm’
The deal comes after Katjes International increased its corporate bond issued in May 2015 by €35m ($39m) last month to bankroll acquisitions. This took its total corporate bond to €95m ($106m).
Katjes International owns five companies: Lutti France, Continental Sweets Belgium, the German companies Piasten and Dallmann, and Festivaldi in the Netherlands. It also has a minoirty stake in German chocolate firm Halloren.
It issued the latest corporate bond to open up new markets via acquisitions.
Stephan Milde, Katjes International CFO, told ConfectioneryNews: “Manner is a fantastic brand. It is the largest Austrian confectionery firm and they are very strong, not only in Austria, but also internationally.”
Josef Manner was the market leader in Austrian sweet biscuits, snack bars and fruit snacks in 2016 with a 20% value share, according to Euromonitor International.
Around 750 employees
The company’s 2016 annual report says 41.7% of Jospeh Manner’s sales come in Austria, 55.7% in other EU countries, and 2.5% in the rest of the world.
Joseph Manner has 750 employees and operates two production facilities in Austria. It owns snacking brands Casali and Napoli and nougat brands Victor Schmidt and Ildefonso, as well as its namesake brand of wafers.
Joseph Manner shares were trading at €57 ($64) per share on Friday (June 16). This would make a 5.7% stake worth around €6.2m ($6.9m).
Milde said Katjes International would continue to explore other acquisitions with its corporate bond, focusing on sugar confectionery players in Western Europe.
