Overview
Düsseldorf, March 4, 2020 – McDermott Will & Emery advised the Krüger Group on the antitrust aspects of the Peeters Group acquisition.
The Krüger Group acquires the Dutch Peeters group through its subsidiary Wilhelm Reuss GmbH, a producer of chocolate and nougat spreads for Lidl (Mister Choc, Choco Nussa), Edeka (Gut & Günstig, Nussetti), Aldi Süd (Nutoka) and others. The Peeters Group also produces private labels for food retailers, especially for Rewe (Ja, Bio) and Aldi Nord (Trader Joe’s).
In its press release regarding the approval of the merger the German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) stated, inter alia “This acquisition will create a manufacturer which is by far Germany’s leading producer of chocolate and nougat spreads for third parties. […] The merger narrows the choice of manufacturers producing private label/manufacturer brand chocolate and nougat spreads available to food retailers. The investigations have shown, however, that competitors in and outside Germany could easily expand the capacities available to them and that it would also be possible to switch from manufacturer brand to private label production without any problems.”
The Krüger Group is a leading family-owned company in the food industry with about 5,000 employees and around two billion Euros in revenue. Half of the Group is owned by the Krüger family from Bergisch-Gladbach and the other half by Pfeifer & Langen, a Rhineland-based group of companies producing sugar and snacks. The Aachen-based company Zentis previously owned 100 percent of the Peeters Produkten B.V. headquartered in Roosendaal (Netherlands). Zentis and the Krüger Group signed the respective purchase agreement in December of last year.
McDermott partner Christian Krohs, LL.M. regularly advises the Krüger Group on antitrust issues.
The McDermott team advising the Krüger Group was led by partner Christian Krohs, LL.M. and included Carina Kant and Dr. Anja Bertrand (alle Kartellrecht)
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