St. Paul Group Strengthens its Cheese Business
St. Paul Group, a cheese specialist with premises in Belgium and the Netherlands, has acquired the processed cheese, analogue cheese, grated cheese and air-dried cheese activities of Givaudan, the global leader in the creation of flavours and fragrances, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will strengthen St. Paul’s position as a strong and leading player in cheese solutions, offering a wide range of cheese based, analogue and vegan product formats for global customers in the food industry.
St. Paul Group is a medium-sized family owned company with sales just above €50 million. St. Paul has a strong focus on Europe with considerable and growing sales volumes in the rest of the world. St. Paul’s owner and CEO Dieter Kuijl (pictured) started the production of cheese solutions in Lokeren, Belgium, in 1985. The Lokeren site still operates as St. Paul’s main analog cheese production site, but since 2017 the group’s headquarters as well as its warehousing, grating and cheese cleaning activities moved to its new location in St Jansteen in the Netherlands.
Dieter Kuijl says: “We are delighted with this transaction as it represents an attractive opportunity to further build St Paul’s customer base in ready meals, snacks and processed food. In addition, St Paul will now also be able to offer a wider range of products and applications.”
The processed and grated cheese business being acquired contributed SFr13.5 million to Givaudan’s Flavour Division sales in 2019.
“With the sale of our processed and grated cheese business we aim to strengthen the focus on our core business and continue to drive long-term shareholder value,” explains Louie D’Amico, President Flavour Division, Givaudan.
