The Emmi Group announced it intends to acquire the leading French group specializing in premium pastries, Mademoiselle Desserts. The potential acquisition has an enterprise value of around EUR 900 million. The acquisition would add French-inspired desserts to Emmi’s dessert portfolio. With around 2,000 employees, Mademoiselle Desserts recorded annual sales of around EUR 420 million in 2023. The transaction is subject to consultation with Mademoiselle Desserts’ employee representatives and approval by the relevant competition and regulatory authorities.
Over the last 30 years, Emmi has made 45 acquisitions, developing its portfolio beyond Switzerland. It focuses on four selected niches, one of which is premium desserts. Emmi built up this segment over the last ten years, starting in 2011, with Italian-inspired desserts such as tiramisu and most recently with a fifth dessert acquisition in 2020 in the USA, which expanded the portfolio to include American and Latin American-inspired desserts.
Today, the premium dessert business accounts for 9% of the Emmi Group’s total sales. Emmi stated: “The planned acquisition will open up new market opportunities for Emmi to assume a leading global role in the constantly growing premium dessert category as a ‘Desserts Powerhouse’.”
Ricarda Demarmels, CEO of Emmi Group, commented on the new acquisition plans: “With the planned takeover of the Mademoiselle Desserts Group, we want to strengthen our strategic premium desserts category and, as a ‘category captain’ and preferred business partner, we will be able to offer our customers an innovative and high-quality overall range. This strategically significant step would enable us to exploit the global growth opportunities of the premium desserts category and further drive our portfolio transformation. We intend to combine the savoir-faire of French dessert art and the patisserie of Mademoiselle Desserts with the dessert creations of our passionate pasticceri as well as the innovative American and Latin American-inspired desserts from Italy and the USA under the umbrella of the Emmi Group.”
French dessert expertise
The Mademoiselle Desserts Group has a leading market position in the European dessert market with 12 production sites in France, England, the Netherlands and Belgium. The company is constantly developing its product portfolio together with its customers, with a recently added snacking products category. The products are available in the classic retail channels, in addition to Emmi’s existing portfolio, primarily in the in-store bakery area, as well as in the food service sector.
“We look forward with great joy and excitement to the possible collaboration with our Italian and American colleagues in the Emmi Group, with whom we would combine our dessert know-how. Together we will expand the dessert business with an outstanding range of iconic products,” said Didier Boudy, the current CEO of the Mademoiselle Desserts Group, about the planned transaction after the signing of the put option agreement.
Didier Boudy would take over responsibility for the newly created Emmi ‘Desserts Powerhouse’, in which the Mademoiselle Desserts Group would be united with the existing Emmi dessert companies from Italy and the USA. A respected industry expert, Boudy has been President of the FEB (La Fédération des Entreprises de Boulangerie/Patisserie), the French bakery and patisserie association, since 2021.
Information and consultation with the relevant employee representatives of Mademoiselle Desserts will begin shortly.
Emmi is a leading manufacturer of high-quality dairy products in Switzerland, founded in 1907 by dairy farmers’ cooperatives in the Lucerne region. It now has a local presence in 14 countries, selling its products in around 60 countries, with 57 production sites in 11 countries. With more than 9,000 employees, around 70% of whom work outside Switzerland, the Emmi Group generated sales of CHF 4.2 billion (EUR 4.3 billion) in 2023.
Photos: Mademoiselle Desserts
