SWITZERLAND– Swiss equipment leader Bühler has created a new consumer foods segment to add to its current two segments and appointed Germar Wacker, who has been the CEO of its Haas business unit, to lead the new segment. 

The consumer foods segment will combine Bühler’s current chocolate, nuts, bakery and coffee business with the recently acquired Haas business, in what the company says will ‘support customers even better in global markets through simplified interfaces, integrated solutions, innovation, and services.’

Bühler acquired The Haas Group, an Austrian-based maker of wafer, biscuits and confectioneryequipment in early 2018. 

Meanwhile, Wacker will also join the Executive Board of Bühler, with the changes expected to come into effect on January 1, 2019.

“With this move, we can create significant value for our customers and position ourselves as clear leader in the growing consumer foods market,” said Bühler CEO Stefan Scheiber.

The new segment will combine all of Bühler and Haas’ consumer foods related technologies and solutions in one segment, thereby serving customers from one single point, says Bühler.

Bühler says that the creation of a new business segment is a milestone in its over 150-year history, as the company has operated two businesses, Advanced Materials and Grains & Food in the recent past.

The creation of the consumer foods segment was triggered by the acquisition of Haas Group in 2017, with Bühler aligning its setup to focus on consumer foods and confectionery sectors, with integrated solutions to produce wafers, biscuits, baked goods, chocolate, pralines, filled products, nuts, coffee, and more, according to Bühler.

The new segment will combine all of Bühler and Haas’ consumer foods related technologies and solutions in one segment, thereby serving customers from one single point, says Bühler.

“With this new, strong business pillar in the field of processing technologies in consumer foods, we can offer specialized knowledge as well as research and development to the needs of our customers in that sector,” said Wacker.

Haas has operated as a separate Bühler business since the close of the acquisition in January 2018.

Bühler says that the Haas integration has showed remarkable results in a very short time and that both companies already serve many key customers together, work jointly on customer projects, and are in discussion with numerous interested partners.