PKM Duda eyes two Polish meat players
The company has filed an application to Poland’s competition watchdog UOKiK, whose approval is a prerequisite to finalising the two acquisitions.
Meat-Pac is a poultry meat processor, and Bekpol specialises in wholesaling meat. Both companies are owned by local businesspeople Adam and Barbara Skwarek. PKM Duda aims to acquire 100% of the shares in Bekpol and Meat-Pac.
New export markets
The latest development comes following PKM Duda’s announcement earlier this year that the firm was aiming to expand to new export markets, including the US and Malaysia.
“We are joining all the available programmes to access foreign markets,” said Dariusz Formela, chief executive of PKM Duda, as reported by local news agency PAP. “We recently hosted the representatives of the Malaysian veterinary authority.”
“Canada is our window on the USA,” Formela said. “We are already present in Canada, and, regarding the US, there is an ongoing procedure to enable [the company’s market expansion]."
PKM Duda said in a statement that the two acquisitions were estimated to be worth a total of PLN18.64 million (€4.33m).
The latest announcement follows the release of the group’s improved financial results for the first half of 2016. In the first six months of this year, PKM Duda reported revenues of some PLN691.9m (€160.7m), and an EBITDA of about PLN23.3m (€5.4m), according to figures from the meat industry player. About 82.3% of the company’s revenues were generated by export sales.
Poultry consumption to rise
However, PKM Duda said it was expecting the country’s poultry meat consumption per capita to expand, and Poland’s pork meat consumption to decrease in the forthcoming years.
“Pork meat consumption could fall by 2.2kg to the level of 39.5kg by the end of 2016," it said in a statement. "At the same time, it is expected that the consumption of poultry meat could increase to 28.8kg per person by the end of this year.”
Under PKM Duda’s market strategy for the period 2015-2019, the meat processor aims to raise its revenues through acquisitions of other meat industry players, as well as the development of its production and distribution capacities in Poland.
Headquartered in the country’s capital, Warsaw, PKM Duda claims to be the largest player in Poland’s red meat slaughtering and packaging industry. The group specialises in processing pork, beef and game meat, and consists of 30 firms located in Poland, Germany and Ukraine. In addition to the domestic market, PKM Duda exports its products to a number of countries in Europe, Asia and Africa.
Earlier this year, the management board of PKM Duda decided that the meat industry player would change its name to Gobarto SA as part of its marketing efforts. Since 2002, PKM Duda has been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE).
