July 8, 2005

Danish Crown sells local slaughterhouse
 

Europe's largest meat processor Danish Crown has agreed to the sale of another slaughterhouse in Denmark, as part of a restructuring plan to concentrate its processing operations and expand internationally.

The plan, which was announced five years ago, will also see Danish Crown investing in more automation to increase its competitiveness. This slaughterhouse sale was in part to satisfy the condition of its 2001 merger with Steff-Houlberg.

The trend of northern Europe's pork industry riding on economies of scale to lower costs has become more apparent as competition within the industry heats up. Currently, the bulk of Danish Crown's sales, at 90 percent, come from international markets.

In the previous financial year, Danish Crown bought over UK's Flagship Foods and the majority of shares in a Polish processing plant. It has also acquired a processing plant in Germany.

Locally, however, the company has closed one other pig slaughterhouse and expanded a third one to handle pork production from the first two closures.

In April, Danish Crown also sold food distributor Emborg Foods to F.Uhrenholt, one of Denmark's largest food trading companies for cheese, seafood and meat products.

Danish Crown's annual turnover is about EUR6 billion (US$7.16 billion).