Buhler Haas
The Haas Group is a producer of wafer, cookie and confectionery production systems. Photo courtesy of Bühler.
 
UZWIL, SWITZERLAND – The Bühler Group has completed the acquisition of the Haas Group, a producer of wafer, cookie and confectionery production systems.

This strategic acquisition enables Bühler to complete its consumer foods product portfolio, and gives Haas the resources of the global Bühler organization, in particular its approximately 100 service stations and its innovation network.

“This means we are opening a new chapter in the Consumer Food market, and we feel confirmed by the broad approval that we have received from many customers and employees,” said Stefan Scheiber, chief executive officer of Bühler.

Haas, a family-owned company that was set up over 100 years ago in Vienna, Austria, has evolved into a market leader in the field of production systems for making wafers, hard and soft cookies, ice cream cones, cakes, and bakery products. With its global workforce of 1,750 employees, Haas generates annual sales of about €300 million and operates its own production sites in six countries.

Bühler said the acquisition is a milestone in the development of its consumer foods business. The Bühler Group is a market leader in the field of food production systems along the entire value chain, for example from wheat grains to dough and up to finished wafers or cookies, or from cocoa beans to chocolate mass up to ready-to-consume chocolate products. To date, Bühler has not engaged in the wafer and cookie production market.

“Though we also offer food processing technologies and often have the same customers, our products and services do not overlap in any way – this means, we complement each other ideally,” Scheiber said.

He said Haas and Bühler will strengthen each other, with the Haas portfolio enabling Bühler to offer its customers new opportunities.

Bühler will make its global network of some 100 service stations accessible to the customers of Haas as quickly as possible, integrate Haas in the Bühler innovation management organization and network, and in the medium term develop complete solutions for producing wafers, cookies, and confectionery products with chocolate.

“The powerful presence of Bühler in Asia is another factor that enables the two combined companies to seize new opportunities in this major growth market for wafer and cookie products,” said Germar Wacker, who is now in charge of the Haas business within the Bühler Group.