CSM acquires Kate’s Cakes

Kate’s, who employs 470 people and has a turnover of £23M, has been a key driver in the ultra-premium cakes and dessert market, with particular focus on the rapidly expanding coffee shop and ‘on the go’ operations.

Wirral based BakeMark UK is already market leader within bakery ingredients and bakery products, employing 550 people with a turnover of £115M.

The two UK based businesses, both highly successful within their target market sectors, will continue to run largely independently and customer contacts will remain unchanged.

Commenting on the acquisition Marco Bertacca, CSM’s European Vice President for Frozen & Bakery Products stated: ‘We firmly believe that the market for premium products is here to stay. Kate’s has been at the forefront of this trend through its market leading work with the coffee shop and ‘on the go’ sectors. We believe that Kate’s perfectly complements our existing UK operations whilst providing a superb platform and effective model with which we will be able to focus on the growing opportunities within the coffee shop sector across Europe. We have the clear aim of becoming the European premier supplier of choice within this important fast emerging channel’.

Kate’s Cakes Managing Director Steve Greenhalgh who will continue along with the Management Team at Kate’s Cakes for the foreseeable future commented; ‘Both Kate’s Cakes and BakeMark UK have strong market leading positions with highly effective individuals, teams and working methodology – as such both businesses will be left alone to do what they do best. Whilst we will creatively explore synergies, we will naturally be very careful not to disturb what is clearly a winning formula within both companies. The resources and market knowledge that CSM brings to Kate’s Cakes will enable us to take the business to another level, particularly with the growing opportunity across Europe. The future is tremendously exciting for all of us’.

CSM NV is the worldwide market leader within bakery ingredients and lactic acid with a turnover of 2.4B Euros and a workforce of 8,200 employees in 22 countries.