5 June 2007 - The German business press has recently reported that the Barilla Group is planning restructuring measures for its leading German bakery products firm Kamps AG.
According to the press reports, Barilla is "under pressure" to improve results at Kamps, as it plans to float the German firm on the stock market by 2010 unless it is prepared to buy out its co-investor, Italian bank Banca Popolare Italiana (BPI).
In a statement sent to FLEXNEWS, Kamps public relations officer Christina Stylianou explained that her company has already closed 2 of its 7 bakeries, which supply shops in Germany. However, the firm still has 16 production plants, which continue to bake 'branded' breads every day for German supermarkets.
Stylianou stresses the fact that there are no plans to sell Kamps' shops.
In February, FLEXNEWS reported that Kamps, in a move to save costs and improve communication within the group, would be relocating staff this summer from its main site in Dusseldorf to Schwalmtal near Viersen and Garrel near Oldenburg.
Kamps supplies more than 23,000 food retail outlets in Germany with fresh bread and fresh bakery goods under its brand names Golden Toast and Lieken Urkorn, and under private labels and bake-off products. The group also has about 1,000 of its own Kamps bakery shops in Germany.
The bakery firm recorded a 90 million euro drop in turnover to 1.2 billion euro in 2006, while EBITDA reached 67 million euro. The company employs over 7,800 people.
Kamps has been 51% owned by Italian bakery, pasta and sauce manufacturer Barilla group since 2002.