Leading salty snack firms plan mutual take-overs

The two leading companies on the market, The Lorenz Bahlsen Snack-World (LBSW) and Intersnack, have made an agreement. The companies want to strengthen their positions by mutual take-overs. LBSW is going to take over Polsnack, a Polish company so far owned by Intersnack. In exchange Intersnack is to acquire a French company belonging to LBSW. The brands distributed by Lorenz will include Crunchips, Chio, Wolf, Saltletts, Biesiadne and Lajkonik. After Pepsi took over Star Foods, the consolidation of this branch is now higher than ever. "Consolidation is a natural trend in the food industry, thanks to which companies may cut costs, increase market share and avoid destructive competition" said Andrzej Gantner, President of the Polish Federation of Food Producers. With market share reaching 25%, LBSW will rank second to PepsiCo, which controls over 40% of the market. The main competitor of the two companies will be DM Snacks, which controls 5% of the market. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 9) M.K.