Multivac takes over the Fritsch Group

Fritsch is a man­u­fac­tur­er of bak­ery equip­ment with its head­quar­ters in the town of Markt Ein­er­sheim in Low­er Fran­co­nia. The prod­uct range con­sists of high-per­for­mance equip­ment and ground­break­ing tech­nol­o­gy for dough form­ing and pro­cess­ing. Fritsch offers the right solu­tion for every size of com­pa­ny — from table­top units to indus­tri­al-scale equip­ment. Pre­mi­um bak­ery prod­ucts are pro­duced with Fritsch machines through­out the world.

With the takeover of the Fritsch Group, Mul­ti­vac is com­ple­ment­ing its range of solu­tions, so that in future it will also be able to offer com­plete pro­duc­tion lines from one source to the bak­ery indus­try as well. “The takeover of Fritsch is anoth­er impor­tant step for Mul­ti­vac in expand­ing our range of inte­grat­ed solu­tions for pro­cess­ing and pack­ag­ing food prod­ucts. Thanks to the pro­cess­ing solu­tions from Fritsch, we will con­tin­ue to extend our pres­ence in the bak­ery indus­try, where we have already been able in recent years to imple­ment some very chal­leng­ing projects for auto­mat­ed pack­ag­ing solu­tions,” explained Chris­t­ian Trau­mann, Direc­tor and Group CFO of Multivac.

Fritsch was found­ed in 1926 and is cur­rent­ly under the own­er­ship of the fourth gen­er­a­tion of the Fritsch fam­i­ly. The com­pa­ny, which is based in Markt Ein­er­sheim, has devel­oped over many decades into a very inno­v­a­tive man­u­fac­tur­er of bak­ery equip­ment. In 2018 Fritsch gen­er­at­ed a turnover of around 80 mil­lion euros and cur­rent­ly employs approx. 600 staff. In mid April of this year Fritsch filed for insol­ven­cy. Fritsch is rep­re­sent­ed by its own sub­sidiaries in Rus­sia, Poland, Great Britain and the USA, and it also has a world­wide net­work of sales and ser­vice part­ners, who ensure that it remains close to its cus­tomers. As a result of the takeover, Fritsch will become part of a strong Group, enabling it to con­tin­ue its busi­ness oper­a­tions for the ben­e­fit of its stake­hold­ers and customers.

The inte­gra­tion of the com­pa­ny into the Mul­ti­vac Group will begin imme­di­ate­ly. The man­u­fac­ture and devel­op­ment of Fritsch prod­ucts will con­tin­ue at its site in Markt Ein­er­sheim. Fritsch also has a Tech­nol­o­gy Cen­ter there, in which cus­tomer tri­als are car­ried out and cus­tomized prod­ucts and recipes are devel­oped. The com­pa­ny’s prod­ucts will be sold via Mul­ti­vac’s world­wide sales and ser­vice net­work. Invest­ment will be made at Mul­ti­vac’s sub­sidiaries in cre­at­ing spe­cialised sales teams for the bak­ery indus­try, so that in future it will be pos­si­ble to offer cus­tomers inte­grat­ed solu­tions for man­u­fac­tur­ing and pack­ag­ing bak­ery products.

In addi­tion to the man­age­ment in place, a Mul­ti­vac man­age­ment team will be appoint­ed to run the com­pa­ny, and this will direct and devel­op the Fritsch Group as a stand-alone busi­ness. “We are very pleased at the suc­cess­ful takeover of the Fritsch Group, and we are also con­vinced that our man­age­ment will make an impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion to the recov­ery of the com­pa­ny. Fritsch is an indus­try leader in bak­ery equip­ment and has an excel­lent rep­u­ta­tion in the mar­ket. Thanks pri­mar­i­ly to the inte­gra­tion of Fritsch prod­ucts in Mul­ti­vac’s line solu­tions, we see great syn­er­gy poten­tial, which will make a major con­tri­bu­tion to the healthy devel­op­ment of Fritsch in future,” says Gui­do Spix, Direc­tor and Group CTO/COO of Multivac.

Sub­ject to approval under car­tel leg­is­la­tion, the takeover of the Fritsch Group will take effect on 01 August 2019.