Grupo Bimbo has snapped up Karamolegos Bakery Romania in the latest deal by the acquisition-hungry Mexican bakery group.
As is often customary with Grupo Bimbo, the purchase was revealed with a brief line in the company’s latest results statement, with none of the finer details provided.
Karamolegos Bakery Romania is based in Ilfov, Bucharest, and supplies a range of packaged breads to the retail channel. According to its website, the company is part of Karamolegos Bakery KB, set up in Santorini, Greece, in 1950.
The Romania subsidiary was launched in 2009.
At the time of writing, Grupo Bimbo had not responded to Just Food’s request for more information on the transaction, such as the nature of the deal and the price paid for the business.
Last year, Grupo Bimbo reportedly expanded its presence in Romania with the purchase of six bakeries, although the company’s managing director in Romania, Ionut Ilie, declined to provide further details.
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By GlobalDataThe deal for the sites was struck with the family of local entrepreneur Siminel Andrei, according to unnamed “sources in the market” cited by the business news publication Ziarul Finaciar, reportedly for a total consideration of $100m.
Grupo Bimbo first entered the Romanian market early in 2023 with an agreement to acquire bakery business Vel Pitar, located in the town of Râmnicu Vâlcea, from New York-based private-equity fund NCH Capital.
Reporting its first-quarter results this week, Grupo Bimbo said net sales rose 10.8% to 103.73bn pesos ($5.2bn) but net income dropped 26.6% to 1.77bn pesos.
Adjusted EBITDA climbed 8% to 12.82bn pesos, while operating income was down 1.8% at 6.75bn pesos.
In North America, the group made reference to a “tough consumer environment”, a region where it operates through Bimbo Bakeries USA.
Recent results from other food manufacturers with large operations and sales in the US have highlighted the macroeconomic uncertainties from tariffs, waning consumer confidence and ongoing pressures from inflation.
In Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EEA), in which Grupo Bimbo registers its results for Romania but not specifically, sales rose 22.3% to 12.05bn pesos.
Prior to the Karamolegos Bakery Romania deal, Grupo Bimbo’s most recent M&A transaction was struck late last year for Slovenia bakery business Don Don, giving the group a presence in 39 countries.
Grupo Bimbo also made an acquisition in Brazil in September for the bakery group Wickbold.
Earlier last year, it bought Spain-based gluten-free bakery company Amarittamn, building on the October 2023 purchase of Mile Hi Bakery in Colorado in the US. In the summer of that year it also took an undisclosed stake in Netherlands-based bread start-up Zero Carb Company.
