BayWa invests in dried fruit and nut business

Rotterdam-based trader Cefetra Group, which is part of the BayWa Group, is to acquire a majority stake in Heinrich Brüning, one of Germany’s largest suppliers and packers of dried fruit and nuts.

The Hamburg-based company, which has also successfully established itself in the organic segment with its Suntree division over the past 15 years, has customers in the food processing industry, as well as discount supermarkets and food retailers.

For these, Heinrich Brüning packs dried fruit and nut kernel mixes under its own label and customers’ own brands at its Hamburg site.

The purchase of Heinrich Brüning marks another important step for Cefetra as it strengthens its market position as a key supplier of food ingredients, BayWa said in a press statement.

For its part, the group said, Heinrich Brüning benefits from a potent partner with whom it can generate further growth in its core business.

“Speciality ingredients have become a permanent fixture in our international agricultural business,” commented Klaus Josef Lutz, chief executive officer of BayWa. “In recent years, we have gradually added attractive acquisitions in the specialities sector to our portfolio at Cefetra Group and diversified it more and more.”

He added: “Heinrich Brüning is a company with tradition, a strong presence in Europe and promising products. In that way, Heinrich Brüning is an excellent fit for us to jointly advance our strategic goals.”

“The food ingredients market is an important pillar of our growth strategy,” said Daan Vriens, CEO of the Cefetra Group. According to Vries, Heinrich Brüning plays a significant role in this market and complements his company’s product portfolio and customer base very well. “We were particularly impressed with the expertise and decades of experience of the owner family and their workforce,” he continued.

“We share the same corporate values and culture with Heinrich Brüning. We are very much looking forward to further developing the exciting growth area in the nuts and dried fruit sector in partnership.”

Part of a balanced diet

From a consumer perspective, nuts and dried fruits are increasingly seen as an attractive proposition, and in particular as a vitamin-rich component of a balanced diet.

And as a plant-based source of protein, nuts are apparently generating more interesting as an ingredient for the production of vegetarian and vegan foods.

“After almost 70 years of successful operation as a family-owned company, we have decided to aim for a partnership in order to better exploit the growth opportunities in this business,” said Frank Rump, managing director of Heinrich Brüning.

Rump and his other management colleagues will remain as managing directors, while the current owners will retain a shareholding in the business.

“We decided for the partnership with Cefetra Group as we found our goals and our company culture fully reflected by Cefetra,” he added, “and also see this as a strong signal towards our customers as well as our employees.”

Heinrich Brüning was founded in 1954 and currently employs 84 staff members. The dried fruits and nuts imported by Heinrich Brüning via the port of Hamburg can be found as ingredients in a wide range of food products, such as muesli, biscuits, gingerbread as well as snack items and baked goods.

The company also packs imported dried fruits and nuts for retail clients