Danish Crown acquires majority stake in Chinese casings producer

CHINA – Danish Crown, through its subsidiary DAT-Schaub has acquired majority stake in Shanghai Natural Casing Company as it seeks to increase its activities in China in processing natural casings for sausage and salami production.

This expands the capacity of DAT-Schaub in becoming a global leader in the selecting and processing of natural casings from pigs and lambs.

Shanghai Natural Casing Company processes natural casings for the US company DCW Casing LLC, a company in which DAT-Schaub is a major shareholder.

According to Jan Roelsgaard, CEO, DAT-Schaub, increase in production capacity was called for having seen rising volumes of raw materials.

“China is the centre for selecting and processing in a labour-intensive industry like ours.

At the same time, the country is well positioned geographically because the raw materials come from Europe, the US and Australia.

There is a strong infrastructure to and from the Shanghai area, and the employees are meticulous and quality conscious, which is essential in our business,” said Jan Roelsgaard.

DAT-Schaub is a Denmark-based manufacturer, leader in sourcing, producing, warehousing, marketing and distributing natural and artificial casings and ingredients to the food industry.

It is working on a strategy to establish a strong brand as well as enhance its global expansion in buying and cleaning sets of casings from pigs and sheep before sending it to China and Portugal based facilities for processing.

“DAT-Schaub has a strong brand and sells its products all over the world. Over the past financial year, the company generated a record-setting profit.

In my view, this is a perfect set off to become the undisputed market leader globally, which is also our clear – and definitely realistic – ambition,” said Jais Valeur, Group CEO, Danish Crown.

Since 2002, the Danish Crown subsidiary has acquired more than 10 companies with an aim to become global leader in natural casings, these accompanied with some divestments including sale of Nordic ingredients business to Orkla Food Ingredients.

Other key vendors in the global sausage casing market include Viscofan SA, FIBRAN, S.A, ViskoTeepak, Columbit Group (Colpak), Innovia Films Limited among many.