Katjes International have strengthened their grip on the confectionary market by acquiring Cloetta’s Italian operation for a fee of SEK 450m (£41.5m/$54.3m).
The deal in place will see Katjes take over Cloetta Italy, which includes the brands Editor, Dietorelle, Sperlari, Galatine and Saila, while they will also take charge of factories in Gordona, Cremona, Silvi Marina and San Pietro in Casale. There were around 400 employees working for Cloetta in 2016, who had annual sales of SEK 745m (£68.6m/$89.8m). The takeover isn’t subject to regulatory approvals and as such, is expected to be finalised in Q3 2017. Those figures made Cloetta the second key player in the Italian sugar confectionary market with an 18% share of proceedings according to Euromonitor value sales data, with Perfetti Van Melle leading the way in the market.
In January, Cloetta revealed that they were debating selling their Italian arm, which accounted for 12-13% of their group sales, and subsequently snapped up Swedish pick and mix firm Candyking for $37m (£28.25m) in February of this year. Cloetta’s reasons for selling their Italian arm came down to how the Italian economy is and how price hikes affected their sales in the country. Euromonitor have forecasted a 1% compound annual growth rate decline for Italy’s sugar confectionary market, impacting both retail volume and values sales, up to 2021.
