Bakery equipment supplier Fritsch Group and its subsidiaries are to be taken over by packaging specialist Multivac.

The deal follows family-owned Fritsch, which employs 600 staff and has a turnover of around €80m, filing for insolvency in April.

Multivac is to take over Fritsch and its subsidiaries in Great Britain, Russia, Poland and the US, which it said would enable it to offer complete production lines.

“The takeover of Fritsch is another important step for Multivac in expanding our range of integrated solutions for processing and packaging food products,” explained Christian Traumann, Multivac director and group CFO.

“Thanks to the processing solutions from Fritsch, we will continue to extend our presence in the baking industry, where we have already been able, in recent years, to implement some very challenging projects for automated packaging solutions.”

Fritsch equipment will continue to be developed and manufactured at its site in Markt Einersheim, Germany, and will be sold via Multivac’s worldwide sales and service network. Multivac added that it would be investing in its own subsidiaries to create specialised sales teams for the baking industry.

In addition to the Fritsch management in place, a Multivac management team will be appointed to run the company as a stand-alone business.

“We are very pleased at the successful takeover of the Fritsch Group, and are convinced that our management will make an important contribution to the recovery of the company,” said Multivac director and group CTO/COO Guido Spix.

“We see great synergy potential, which will make a major contribution to the healthy development of Fritsch in future.”

The take over is expected to take effect on 1 August.