HKScan, the Finland-based meals group, has arrange a enterprise with native greens enterprise Vihannes-Laitila.
The brand new enterprise will launch what HKScan described as “recent ready-to-use and ready-to-cook vegetable merchandise with greater added-value”.
Tero Hemmilä, HKScan’s CEO, stated: “The partnership with Finland’s main vegetable buying and selling firm is a pure a part of our technique to develop into new uncooked supplies and product classes. Using greens has been strongly rising and the added worth of merchandise has been on common very low. The brand new collaboration will present a wonderful platform to create added worth for vegetable merchandise, develop the choice and drive development.”
The businesses plan to launch merchandise inside a yr. Requested for extra particulars, a HKScan spokesperson stated: “Because the agreements had been signed and the three way partnership between HKScan and Vihannes-Laitila was printed yesterday, the work has not but began.
“Inside a yr. the brand new firm will launch the brand new product line. For the time being we haven’t printed the model, the merchandise or gross sales channels. We are going to inform extra concerning the new enterprise, new merchandise and many others later when the operation of the brand new JV has began.”
As a part of the deal, HKScan will turn out to be a shareholder in Vihannes-Laitila, holding what the corporate stated in a press release is “a small stake”. The HKScan spokesperson declined to remark additional.
Vihannes-Laitila, which employs round 100 folks, is owned by 80 farmers within the area of Southwest Finland. It generated web gross sales of EUR36m in 2021.
HKScan, a serious provider of beef, pork and poultry merchandise throughout the Nordic and Baltic markets, has been broadening its enterprise.
It has joined forces with impartial meat-free firms in areas like distribution.
HKScan has been manufacturing and advertising and marketing meat-free merchandise beneath its Pärsons model in Sweden in 2016. In November 2019, the corporate teamed up with Hes-Professional (Finland) to develop plant-based protein merchandise, with the primary meals from that partnership launched final autumn beneath the HK Vihreät model.
In Could final yr, HKScan expanded additional into the plant-based market with a three way partnership with Finland-based non-public bakery enterprise Leivon Leipomo. Six months later, the group inked a deal to promote Apetit’s plant-based merchandise within the Swedish foodservice channel.
In November, HKScan entered the fish sector with the acquisition of a minority interest in Gårdsfisk brand owner Scandinavian Aquasystems.
HKScan generated web gross sales of EUR1.82bn (US$1.98bn) in 2021, versus EUR1.78bn a yr earlier. At “comparable change charges”, the corporate stated its web gross sales “remained on the comparability yr degree”.
EBIT stood at EUR17.9m, towards EUR21.3m in 2020. The group made a web lack of EUR1.2m in 2021. The yr earlier than, HKScan posted a web revenue of EUR4.8m.