Frigoscandia extends cold store reach with acquisitions in France, Germany.

Europe may still be hung up over adopting a single currency or other emblems of unity, but in the frozen food storage and distribution field, AGA Frigoscandia is bringing it all together.

Almost simultaneously, the Swedish industry giant announced acquisition of majority stakes in both the French CEGF (Compagnie des Enrepots et Gares Frigorifiques) and the German Bremerhaver Kuhlhauser GmbH, expanding its storage and distribution base in two key EC countries (Sweden, of course, is not now part of the EC).

Frigoscandia French unit, AGA S.A., acquired a 51.4% interest in CEGF for 515 million francs (665 million Swedish kroner). Since the parent Frigoscandia already had a 26.4% interest, the AGA Group now holds a combined share of 77.8%. Remaining shareholders are being offered 770 francs a share - the same price paid to CIM (Compagnie Industrielle Maritime) for the majority interest.

CEGF has 63 cold stores, mostly in France but also in Germany, Italy and the United States. Sales last year were about one billion francs. The acquisition raises the count of Frigoscandia cold stores to 106, more than double what it was before, in eight European countries plus the USA, with a total capacity of some 5.2 million cubic meters. The new Frigoscandia empire also extends to transport and distribution, with some 800 vehicles in daily service.

France is an important market for both AGA and Frigoscandia, both because it has had the fastest rate of growth for frozen food consumption for the last five years and because it is a leading producer of agricultural products for the EC. That means a growing demand for not only refrigerated storage and transport, for two other businesses that Frigoscandia is heavily involved in: processing and freezing equipment, and industrial gases for many applications in the food industry.

Bremerhavener Kuhlhauser is, by contrast, a smaller but still strategically valuable acquisition for Frigoscandia. The company operates five cold stores in Bremen and Bremerhaven with a total capacity of about 200,000 cubic meters, and is positioned to serve both the German fishing industry (centered in Bremerhaven) and a number of internationally-minded German FF processors that have built plants in Bremen. Frigoscandia already had cold stores in Hamburg and other German cities, plus a fleet of 200 vehicles.