NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla., U.S. — Welbilt, Inc., a leading global provider of commercial foodservice equipment, today announced that it has completed the previously-announced acquisition of Avaj International Holding AB (“Crem® International” or “Crem”) for total consideration of approximately SEK 1,800 million, or approximately $224 million USD equivalent.
Crem International is a global leading manufacturer of professional coffee machines with more than 50 years of experience in the market and sales in more than 80 countries. Crem is headquartered in Solna, Sweden, and has three manufacturing sites in Åmotfors, Sweden, Gandia, Spain, and Shanghai, China.
These plants are supported by three R&D centers and six sales offices. Crem develops, manufactures and markets coffee machines under three brands: Coffee Queen®, Expobar® and Spengler for use in offices, restaurants, cafes and coffee shops, catering and convenience stores.
Crem offers the broadest range of professional coffee machines, including manual and automatic espresso and filter coffee machines as well as instant, liquid, freestanding and other machines.
In 2017, Crem International generated sales of approximately SEK 767 million, or approximately $90 million USD equivalent. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to earnings beginning later in 2018 and beyond, with run-rate synergies expected to grow to approximately $10 million by 2020.
“With the acquisition of Crem International now completed, we have taken the first step in realizing our ambition to complement our organic growth strategy with select bolt-on acquisitions,” stated Hubertus Muehlhaeuser, Welbilt’s President and CEO. “The acquisition of Crem is highly strategic on multiple fronts:
It expands our full-line of commercial foodservice equipment coverage by adding the fast-growing hot coffee category to our portfolio;It gives Welbilt the broadest portfolio of hot and cold beverage equipment of any company in the market; Crem’s strength in Europe and Asia supports our strategic objective of expanding our presence in these two important regions; We foresee significant cross-selling opportunities between Crem’s and Welbilt’s respective customer bases in those regions; andWe see further opportunity to bring Crem to Welbilt’s customer base in the U.S. and include it as a core offering in our FitKitchen® system solutions.”
“We welcome Crem International’s employees into the Welbilt family. We see substantial opportunities going forward in creating a joint team supported by shared company values and a spirit of innovation,” concluded Muehlhaeuser.
Sebastian Lindstroem, CEO of Crem International noted, “We at Crem International are delighted to join forces with Welbilt. Within Welbilt’s strong family of brands and products, we will be able to further expand the reach of our highly innovative and competitive product portfolio of professional coffee machines through improved market access while our current customers will benefit from Welbilt’s expertise in new product development and manufacturing process improvement.”
