Chocolate and nougat spreads – Merger between Krüger Group and Peeters cleared

The Bundeskartellamt has cleared the acquisition of the Dutch Peeters group, a manufacturer of chocolate and nougat spreads, by Wilhelm Reuss GmbH, a member of the Krüger Group based in Bergisch-Gladbach. The Krüger Group is by far Germany’s leading manufacturer of chocolate and nougat spreads for third parties, such as food retailers and other manufacturers.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “This acquisition will create a manufacturer which is by far Germany’s leading producer of chocolate and nougat spreads for third parties. There are, however, also numerous competing products and especially the strong manufacturer brand Nutella, which holds more than two thirds of the market shares in Germany; this ultimately made it possible to clear the proposed merger.”

The Krüger Group, one half of which 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, produces chocolate and nougat spreads, in addition to other food, for Lidl (Mister Choc, Choco Nussa), Edeka (Gut & Günstig, Nussetti), Aldi Süd (Nutoka) and others. The Peeters Group, which is significantly smaller in size, also produces private labels for food retailers, especially for Rewe (Ja, Bio) and Aldi Nord (Trader Joe’s).

Private labels make up merely around eleven per cent of the overall chocolate and nougat spread sales in Germany. The remaining roughly 89 per cent of the overall sales are achieved with manufacturer brands, primarily the product “Nutella”. In the overall chocolate and nougat spreads sector, “Nutella” holds more than two thirds of the shares in Germany.

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. In addition, Nutella’s role in the end consumer market is so important that this also limits the two merging manufacturers’ scope of action as well as the scope to set prices for private labels.

Following extensive investigations carried out by the Bundeskartellamt, it was possible to clear the proposed merger within the first phase of the review.