Lesaffre has acquired a majority stake in Biorigin, a business unit of Zilor, a multinational company producing yeast derivative products, to enhance the supply of yeast derivatives for savory ingredients. The cooperation will improve production processes, logistics and services to the benefit of a global customer base.
As a result of the deal, Lesaffre will become the controlling shareholder of Biorigin with 70% of its total corporate capital, while Zilor will remain a shareholder with 30%. The deal includes Biorigin’s production unit in Quatá/São Paulo, an industrial plant, based in the attractive country of Brazil where there is abundant sugar, water and renewable energy resources.
The aim of this deal is to leverage Lesaffre’s and Biorigin’s complementary capabilities to enable enhanced yeast derivative and savory ingredient solutions for customers worldwide. The business combination between Lesaffre and Biorigin will offer customers benefits by upgrading production capacity and new solutions based on the production and marketing of naturally derived ingredients for human food and animal nutrition industries.
“This acquisition … will offer development opportunities to meet the growing needs of the human food and nutrition industries, as society currently demands savory ingredients from natural sources,” said Brice-Audren Riché, CEO of Lesaffre. “We are stepping up to a new dimension thanks to this strategic move to reinforce Lesaffre and its business unit Biospringer by Lesaffre as global players in the field of yeast extracts for the savory ingredients market.”
Biorigin’s brand will be kept for producing, marketing and selling the products.
The units in Lençóis Paulista and Macatuba in Spain, and the products made from alcoholic fermentation yeast and brewer’s yeast, manufactured at those locations will continue to be handled and sold by Zilor.
The deal is subject to the fulfillment of the usual preconditions for such transactions, including the approval from creditors and other legal and regulatory approvals, including the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), and it is expected to be concluded over the next few months.
Until then, Biorigin and Lesaffre will remain totally independent, keeping their businesses as usual.
Collaboration with DSM-Firmenich
Lesaffre also recently reached an agreement with DSM-Firmenich for a multi-part collaboration in yeast derivatives serving the savory ingredients space. Lesaffre will acquire DSM-Firmenich’s yeast extract go-to-market organization and know-how, enabling production of DSM-Firmenich’s yeast extract products in Lesaffre’s global manufacturing network.
This acquisition will strengthen Lesaffre’s trajectory in the savory ingredients market, bolstering its research and development expertise and expanding its range of high-quality products. Acquiring DSM-Firmenich’s yeast extract processing technologies will enable Lesaffre to better serve customers in savory and other fermentation-based applications.
