Harry-Brot can acquire Kronenbrot production site

On 23 September 2019 the Bundeskartellamt cleared the acquisition of the Witten production site of the insolvent industrial bakery Kronenbrot by Harry-Brot GmbH, Schenefeld. This production site manufactures sandwich bread and bread for toasting.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “With market shares of more than 30 percent Harry-Brot, along with the industrial bakery Lieken, is one of the two leaders in the pre-packed bread market. However its acquisition of one of Kronenbrot’s production sites does not pose a problem from a competition perspective. The customers of industrial bakeries are the large food retail chains where demand is high. These will still have sufficient alternative suppliers after the merger. There will be enough free production capacity in the market to meet demand. The food retail chains will also be able to increase their own baking production capacity and have already done so to some extent.”

Harry-Brot and Kronenbrot are industrial bakeries which manufacture bread and bakery products at different sites across Germany for the food retail trade. Kronenbrot filed for insolvency in 2016 and production at the Witten site was discontinued at the end of July 2019. With its acquisition of the Kronenbrot production site Harry-Brot will gain additional production capacities.

In contrast to fresh bread products the authority defines a market for the manufacture and supply to the food retail sector of pre-packed bread, including sandwich bread and bread for toasting. No differentiation between branded products and private labels was necessary because there are hardly any differences in the production, manufacturers often producing both in their production line, and price differences are of minor importance.