January 21, 2019

Vilofoss enters into joint venture, becomes leader of France's piglet feed market
 

Vilofoss has entered into a joint venture with family-owned company ARC -  a move that will make Vilofoss a leader in the French market for piglet feed, the company said.

The premix and nutrition business - under the ownership of the DLG Group - continues to strengthen its position as one of the largest businesses in the European market. The latest strategic initiative is the collaboration with ARC, which is based in Brittany, France.

"France is one of the most interesting markets for our vitamin and mineral business. With the new joint venture with ARC, we now have five factories in the French market, which makes us strong in the entire livestock business area involving premix and nutrition for pigs, cattle and poultry. Vilofoss France and ARC will become the market leader for piglet feed and account for nearly 20% of the French market for piglet feed. The goal is to have a market share of 25-30% in 2023," said the group executive vice president of Vilofoss, Jacob Holm.

The ARC feed factory is located in the north west of France and is strategically important for the French market.

"ARC has been highly specialised in piglet nutrition for more than 25 years and offers a complete range of feeding solutions for piglet weaning. In addition to piglet feed, the factory also produces chicks prestarters, assuring them a vigorous start to their growth. The factory is entirely dedicated to young animal health and nutrition and supports flexible production and high level of responsiveness. This plant is recently equipped and organised with  two dedicated lines and has vacant production capacity which makes is possible to gain further market share," Holm explained.

ARC primarily sells its products to the French market. However, the company also has exports to Germany, the Czech Republic and Russia.

At the same time, ARC shares synergies with the DLG Group's piglet feed business as well as its French activities at DanHatch, one of Europe's largest and most efficient hatcheries companies.

"The collaboration provides new knowledge and innovative products in the DLG Group that strengthen our competitiveness – especially in the specialised piglet feed area. It will also strengthen DLG's PrimeFeed piglet feed range, which we in collaboration can expand to several countries. One of ARC's strengths is the professional level and innovation within specialty feed without use of antibiotics," Holm said.

Vilofoss has built an international group of poultry specialists and cooperates with DanHatch on the sale of poultry mixtures.

In 2017-2018, DanHatch purchased shares in four French hatcheries. Poultry activities are a central part of DLG's "Leading the Way 2021" strategy, and is seen in the context of the group's other poultry activities, including those with companies Danæg and DanHatch.

Vilofoss is widely represented in the French market with its five vitamin and mineral factories. Together with France's leading agricultural company for cattle feed, Agrial, Vilofoss France inaugurated the cattle mineral factory, Ouestmin, in Rennes in September 2018.

"The cattle mineral factory is the most modern vitamin and mineral factory in France, and it has produced entirely according to plan for the past several months. We are experiencing great interest from agricultural companies in France to cooperate jointly with Agrial," Holm said.

"The collaboration is proceeding very satisfactorily, and we are continuously expanding the cooperation, which will help to increase our sales going forward. We expect the factory to account for 20% of the cattle mineral production on the French market in three years. So France is one of our most important markets in the DLG Group."

- Vilofoss