One of Vandemoortele’s bakeries in France acquired through the recent purchase of Délifrance was hit by a fire last week.
The Belgium-headquartered group said the factory in Torcé, located in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany, suffered “significant damage” when the fire broke out on 28 October.
No one was injured in the incident, Vandemoortele said in a statement posted on LinkedIn, confirming the bakery was closed for maintenance at the time with an “external contractor” on site.
The fire was initially brought under control but later reignited on the evening of 28 October.
Family-owned Vandemoortele said it is assessing the impact on its operations at the Torcé 3 factory, one of three bakeries at the location, to “determine the steps needed for the reconstruction”.
“We are determined to rebuild Torcé 3 and work on the future together,” CEO Yvon Guerin said in an accompanying note on LinkedIn.
“Our first priority is to take care of our people and support our customers as well as we can,” he added. “Our teams are working hard to put everything in place to keep serving you.”
Délifrance operates 14 production facilities, supplying retail and out-of-home customers across Europe and in Asia. The business employs more than 3,200 staff.
Vandemoortele’s acquisition of the business was finally cleared by UK regulators in August.
The Belgium group first struck the deal for Délifrance in March last year but it attracted the attention of competition authorities in Europe and the UK.
Vandemoortele had to make concessions to get the transaction approved by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), a deal that was expected to create a business with combined revenue of €2.4bn ($2.6bn).
It agreed to sell its sales operation in Staines-upon-Thames in south-eastern England after previously committing to dispose of its factory in the UK city of Worcester, including the plant’s assets, contracts and its 73 production staff.
Outside of the UK, and to allay concerns in the EU, Vandemoortele also agreed to sell two Délifrance facilities in France. However, when a buyer for those sites failed to materialise, the CMA then launched its so-called Phase 2 investigation in June this year amid its initial findings that the transaction would lead to a “substantial lessening of competition”.
Competition concerns lay with the fact both Vandemoortele and Délifrance supplied frozen viennoiserie products such as croissants and pains au chocolat to the retail and foodservice channels, which were then baked on site.
The CMA assessed Vandemoortele would become the largest supplier of those products, potentially reducing competition and leading to higher prices.
Vandemoortele also went on to strike another bakery deal this year by taking full ownership of US peer Banneton by acquiring the remaining 20% stake in the business it did not already own.
