Montreal, August 5, 2009 - Lallemand Inc. is pleased to announce the completion of the acquisition of Lake States Yeast Division from the Wausau Paper Group. Lake States Yeast is a leading producer of inactivated torula yeast operating in Rhinelander (Wisconsin, USA).
Lake States Yeast LLC will operate as a separate unit within Lallemand, but its product portfolio will be integrated in the Lallemand Bio-Ingredients division complementing the inactive yeasts and yeast extracts produced in Montreal (Canada), Salutaguse (Estonia) and Grenaa (Denmark).
Lallemand Bio-ingredients was created as a division of Lallemand Inc. in order to produce value added products to complement the growing need in savory and nutritional markets. Today, the term 'inactive yeast' is synonymous with nutrition. The food and nutraceutical industries actively recognize the health benefits of consuming inactive nutritional yeast.
Lallemand Bio-Ingredients offers a complete line of inactive yeast products including: Yeast Extracts, Engevita premium inactive yeast, vitamin enriched nutritional yeasts, inactive brewers yeast as well as Fermentation Nutrition Ingredients (FNI's). Lallemand has one of the largest yeast strains collections worldwide and the Lake States Torula production is an ideal complement to the broad product portfolio Lallemand already offers to the market.
The Bio-Ingredients team continues to focus on developing markets in food and fermentation ingredients - investing heavily in the production of inactive yeasts, yeast extracts and yeast derivatives in the existing plants in Denmark, Estonia, Canada and now also USA. The Lake States acquisition is in this respect a coherent expansion of these efforts in order to offer the best possible product portfolio to our customers all over the world in the food, flavor, fermentation and nutraceutical markets.