GEA Acquires Leading Supplier of Advanced Lines for Soft and Hard Biscuits
GEA yesterday signed an agreement to take over Imaforni Int l S.p.A., a leading supplier of demanding industrial processing equipment and solutions for the biscuits industry. The company is based in Verona, Italy and generated revenues in excess of EUR 85 million with around 210 employees in fiscal year 2015.
Imaforni is highly complementary to GEA s recent acquisition of Comas and will further strengthen the cake and pastry operations of the application center bakery with industrial biscuit lines mainly for hard biscuits and crackers. This acquisition is another step towards realizing its application strategy and to improve GEA s leading position in advanced process technology for the food industry.
"We are happy about the chance to acquire with Imaforni another technology specialist. This makes GEA a market leader for sophisticated equipment for the biscuits industry", commented Jürg Oleas, CEO of GEA. "Since we have sold our heat exchangers business in 2014 we have made six bolt-on acquisitions perfectly complementing our existing application-based competencies. In total, these acquisitions have further raised the group s profitability, while the margins of the heat exchanger business were below average. We are happy to welcome all Imaforni employees at GEA."
Source: GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft
