WH Group Limited, the world’s largest pork company, announced Tuesday that its wholly owned subsidiary, Smithfield Foods Inc. will buy two packaged meat manufacturers in Romania, further expanding the Chinese group’s operations in Europe.
Smithfield entered into a purchase agreement to acquire 100% of the share capital Elit and Vericom, conditional upon, among other things, obtaining anti-monopoly approval from the relevant regulatory authorities.
Elit and Vericom operate three packaged-meat manufacturing facilities, five distribution centers and related assets in Romania. The two companies process and sell, through a nationwide distribution network, to over 12,000 customers, approximately 25,000 metric tons of branded, packaged meats annually (with the capacity to grow to 45,000 metric tons).
The WH Group expects the acquisitions to give Smithfield a leading position in the Romanian packaged meats market with a branded portfolio of products sold in the higher margin traditional channel.
