MOUSCRON, Belgium, June 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Cargill has today completed the acquisition of the assets and business of Schwartauer Werke GmbH & Co. KG Kakao Verarbeitung Berlin, ("KVB"), the integrated cocoa and chocolate company. Already the world's leading processor of cocoa, this acquisition means that Cargill now becomes the leading provider of industrial chocolate in Germany, Europe's largest chocolate market.

KVB's two production plants, based in Berlin, will complement Cargill's existing German cocoa and chocolate facilities in Klein Schierstedt and Hamburg, as well as its network of facilities in Europe, Brazil, Africa and the United States. These two plants will expand Cargill's production capacity by over 75,000 metric tonnes of chocolate per year, as well as increasing its workforce by approximately 180 employees.

"We are delighted that this acquisition has been completed and that KVB is now officially part of Cargill," commented Jos de Loor, Managing Director Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate. "This acquisition marks a significant step in Cargill's cocoa and chocolate growth strategy in Europe and secures our German market leadership position to serve our customers across a broad range of food categories with chocolate products."

The integration of KVB into Cargill's cocoa and chocolate business will begin immediately. The combination of Cargill's expertise in production, origination, and management of price risk coupled with KVB's capabilities, professional workforce and customer base, will create an enhanced cocoa and chocolate house that will offer customers - across a broad spectrum of food ingredient categories - innovative solutions and specialty products.

De Loor added: "We are excited to welcome the employees of KVB into our Cargill family and we look forward to working closely with KVB's customers. This business will support our continued growth in Europe and our intention is to invest in our combined capabilities to provide all our customers with superior choice, high quality and extended market reach."

Notes for editors:

Cargill

Cargill is an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services. Founded in 1865, the privately held company employs 131,000 people in 66 countries.Cargill helps customers succeed through collaboration and innovation, and is committed to sharing its global knowledge and experience to help meet economic, environmental and social challenges wherever it does business.

For more information, visit http://www.cargill.com.

About Cargill in Germany

Cargill has been active in Germany since 1955 and has around 1,600 employees in 12 locations in the country - in Barby, Frankfurt-Höchst, Hamburg (three locations), Klein Schierstedt, Krefeld, Malchin, Mainz, Riesa, Salzgitter and Wittenberge where it has a joint venture producing biodiesel with Agravis Raiffeisen AG.

About Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate

Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate offers the food industry a wide range of both standard and customised cocoa and chocolate ingredients to be used in bakery, confectionery, and dairy applications all over the world. Our product range includes high quality Gerkens(R) cocoa powders, chocolate, coatings, fillings, cocoa liquors and cocoa butters. With years of experience in technical food expertise Cargill supports its customers in new recipes and new product development.

To secure a good quality and sustainable supply of cocoa beans we have cocoa bean sourcing operations in the cocoa growing countries of the world and processing plants in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Côte d'Ivoire, France, Germany, Ghana, the Netherlands, UK and the USA - fully dedicated to produce in accordance with the highest food safety standards and resulting in delicious cocoa and chocolate products for our customers.

About KVB

Schwartauer Werke Kakao Verarbeitung Berlin (KVB) is one of the leading German business-to-business cocoa and chocolate manufacturers. With more than 45 years of experience in the production of chocolate and semi finished cocoa products, KVB has developed unique product expertise for national and international customers. Customers range from large, small and medium sized European confectionary producers in the chocolate, baking and ice-cream industry. KVB sources from cocoa producing countries all over the world and is committed to deliver tailored solutions to its customers whether they need standard or highly specialised cocoa products.

KVB is part of the AOH Nahrungsmittel Group located in Bad Schwartau. The AOH Group of companies which also include Schwartauer Werke as well as the Swiss based Hero Group is controlled by Dr. Arend Oetker.

http://www.cargill.com/news-center/news-releases/index.jsp

    
    Contact:
    Wendy Garbutt
    +44-1932-861174
    wendy_garbutt@cargill.com

SOURCE Cargill