UK’s Baker & Baker expands into Portugal with Peipen acquisition

PORTUGAL— UK-based Baker & Baker has signed an agreement to acquire Portuguese bakery Peipen, marking its debut in the country and further strengthening its global foothold.

Baker & Baker, based in the Wirral in north-west England, sells branded and private-label bakery products to retail, specialist bakeries and foodservice. Its range features donuts, muffins, cakes, cookies, breads and viennoiserie pastries.

Peipen, which makes the Portuguese egg custard tarts pastel de data, is Baker & Baker’s first strategic acquisition since being given a new identity as CSM Bakery Solutions’ standalone European bakery arm last year.

Pastel de Nata – a traditional Portuguese pastry filled with egg custard tart – has seen strong growth with retail and food service customers in recent years in the UK and rest of Europe.

Peipen has been a direct supplier to Baker & Baker for a number of years, and this acquisition brings production in-house, facilitating further capacity for Pastel de Nata growth whilst providing space for expansion through the installation of additional sweet bakery lines, the UK business said.

The facility complements our existing portfolio by adding an attractive, core bakery line and supports our move towards developing our speciality laminated business in our growing Iberian market and quickly adds much-needed capacity

Baker & Baker’s portfolio has delivered strong annual sales. John Lindsay, the European CEO at Baker & Baker, said the business anticipates and enables further growth following the acquisition of Peipen’s operations.

Pipen’s Peniche site, a high quality, modern bakery manufacturing facility, has food safety certifications IFS and FDA, with a total footprint of 5000m².

It currently produces around 1000 tonnes a year, with scope for Baker & Baker to introduce additional product lines and equipment. All 60 Peipen staff have transferred to Baker & Baker.

“The facility complements our existing portfolio by adding an attractive, core bakery line and supports our move towards developing our speciality laminated business in our growing Iberian market and quickly adds much-needed capacity,” added Lindsay.

Baker & Baker – backed by private-equity firm Rhône Capital – emerged from the sale of CSM Bakery Solutions’ ingredients business to investment group Investindustrial. That left CSM with its European arm, renamed Baker & Baker, and the North American division Brill.

However, Brill was then sold last year to US-based Rise Baking, owned by another investment house, Olympus Partners.

Baker & Baker now has 13 manufacturing plants spread across the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium and Italy, and of course Portugal.

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