In a nutshell, the Döhler Group acquiring a majority stake in Nutrafood means major expansion in the nuts space is possible as the Italian specialists know that working with this fast-growing raw material is an “art form”, while the German company has the know-how on applications and formulation.

The two companies coming together in this strategic partnershippromisesNPD in the milk beverages and spoonables categories.

Speaking with FoodIngredientsFirst at SIAL 2018 in Paris, Head of Business Unit Cereal & Dairy, Rene Krebs talks about the rationale behind the acquisition and how significant it is to expand in the nuts space right now.

“Döhler has the philosophy to understand raw material and technology and the nuts derivative is an interesting raw material, for example, pistachios, almonds. The rationale behind this was to get an understanding, get access and the combination of Nutrafoods and Döhler is two things: Döhler can apply and formulate products, understanding the overall supply chain model, while Nutrafoods has a long relationship in understanding nuts. The family was already in the marzipan business and now in the almond business, and they are super with different derivatives of nuts to help us create solutions,” he says.

What might this mean in terms of product development? What might we expect as a result of this acquisition?
“We will be even stronger in the current market and market trends and secondly be able to offer more tailor-made solutions to the client on different raw materials. We have the old rice and cocoa as important raw materials and the nuts family is following, so we can offer equally good, if not better, tailor-made solutions based on those raw materials.”

Are there any examples of the kind of applications you might target?
“There is a lot for almond milk existing today. If you look in North America, for example, the dominating raw material is almond and what you currently see in the market is some kind of milk drink, as in Breeze Blue Diamond in the UK, or there are other ones. What you see in the coffee business is that people take an almond base and blend it with coffee.”

“These are the mega-trends of this product family.”

Is it the first time you are entering this nut space?
“On the one hand, we know how to apply different nuts, the raw materials, and we go even further to produce the raw materials by ourselves. For instance, if you buy a standard nuts base, if you have roasting, for example, you can give it a stronger color and stronger flavor.”

Can you give any background on the acquisition in terms of the price?
“That’s not normally something that we disclose and we agreed with the other party that we would not disclose.”

Can you give a ballpark figure on how significant an acquisition this is?
“There is an ambition to make the company bigger and it will be meaningful. Is it not yet super significant if you take the overall size of Döhler. But it’s meaningful in the plant-based business.”

Plant-based is a really strong and growing with so much NPD. What type of nuts do they produce?
“Almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, peanuts, and the lesser known tiger nuts. In a nutshell, every kind of nut you can think of.”

Is the main area you are targeting within the beverage side in terms of milks? Or will it also be within cereals and creating blends etc?
“If you say drinks are beverages, I would say it is what we call the milk types so you see combinations with almonds, or nuts, with fruit, and you also see other derivatives with fruit. Then it will be spoonable formats. Of course, it also goes in other applications like a bakery.”

Is there anything else you can add about this acquisition?
“I am super happy. Italy is also a place wher you can experience this kind of environment, wher making nuts is an art. It’s not simply an acquisition, it’s also helping us to create value and innovations.”

Will you leave them as a standalone or are things going to change?
“I would say the application will be multiplied by both companies together but I think we will keep it, to a certain extent, in commercial terms what is called a standalone because in a way, they know nuts inside out. The synergies we will leverage and the strengths we will keep and preserve.”