Dr. Oetker/Frostfood

The German food production group Dr. Oetker sold its Czech subsidiary FrostFood, producer of frozen pizza and ready meals. Management of the company together with a group of investors have become owners of the company. EEIP a.s was an exclusive sell side financial advisor of the Dr. Oetker group in the transaction.

FrostFood had been a part of the Dr. Oetker group since July 2008. Dr. Oetker acquired FrostFood as a part of the Czech and Slovak frozen food operations of a Norwegian-based group Orkla. In January 2009, Dr. Oetker relocated production of Guseppe, Maestro and Guseppe Pizzeria branded pizza outside FrostFood’s plant in the Czech Republic and FrostFood re-focused on private label production and ready meals only. FrostFood supplies major retail chain stores such as Tesco, Ahold, Makro, Billa, Spar and Globus. Besides frozen pizza, FrostFood produces frozen ready meals, mainly different kinds of dumplings.

In 2009, FrostFood’s sales dropped 38% to CZK 193 million (EUR 7.3 million) and the number of employees decreased by a third to 111 employees. The net profit decreased from CZK 38 mil in 2008 (EUR 1.4 million) to CZK 1.4 million in 2009 (EUR 50 thousand). About a half of the FrostFood’s revenue came from exports.

According to Dr. Oetker, FrostFood expects to enlarge its frozen specialties production portfolio with a focus on exports. In the mid-term, growth of production volume and the number of employees can be expected in FrostFood.

FrostFood was founded by three Czech entrepreneurs in 1993 under the name Guseppe and launched frozen pizza production in Rokytnice v Orlických horách in 1995. At the end of 1997, the company was acquired by Norwegian group Orkla, which later invested several hundreds of millions CZK in the company.