BEMA - June 2018 - 74

Participation in BEMA rises in an era of mergers and
acquisitions that are redeﬁning the baking industry.
by Dan Malovany
hroughout his career, Kerwin Brown, BEMA's
president and CEO, has seen a lot of equipment companies come and go as the result of mergers, acquisitions and more. During the
past decade, however, the scope, speed and size
of such activity among suppliers to the industry has
caught even this 28-year veteran by surprise.
"The whole consolidation of the industry of late
has been amazing," Mr. Brown observed. "Actually,
it's more than that," he added. "It's unprecedented
during my time in the industry."
The country's largest baking companies -
Mexico City-based Grupo Bimbo and Flowers
Foods, Thomasville, GA - have led the charge
in the acquisition arena that's altered the landVFDSH RI WKH RQFH KLJKO\ GLYHUVL¿HG EUHDG DLVOH
Meanwhile, a wide stream of investors has poured
into the industry bolstering regional and productVSHFL¿FEDNHULHVLQWRSURPLQHQFH
Consolidation has also occurred among BEMA
members and suppliers to the baking industry. "We
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years," noted Tim Cook, president and CEO, Shick
Esteve, a part of the Linxis Group, which also includes VMI and Diosna, among others.
"As bakers consolidate for reasons relating to
SURGXFWLRQ HႈFLHQF\ FDWHJRU\ GLYHUVLW\ DQG JHRgraphic coverage, suppliers follow suit," Mr. Cook
said. "For bakery equipment companies, consolidation can lead to increased customer share, ef¿FLHQF\ LQ HTXLSPHQW LQWHJUDWLRQ DQG H[SDQGHG

BEMA100 | 2018 | www.bema.org

geographic coverage. Ultimately, the goal is to increase the 'value add' to our customers."
When describing the driving force behind the
future of BEMA and the baking industry, Ken
Newsome, CEO of the Markel Food Group, used
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emerging trends come together - and prompt retail and foodservice customers to demand greater
variety, forcing bakers to innovate more quickly. It's
about how customers now ask traditional pan bread
and bun producers to create specialty baked goods
UDQJLQJIURPÀDWEUHDGVWREXWWHU\EULRFKH,W¶VDOVR
about how conventional snack producers now need
to create healthful, organic or non-GMO baked alternatives for the cookie, cracker and chip aisle.
"Convergence is accelerating," Mr. Newsome
said. "The reality of the industry is that the end consumer wants more and more variety while bakers
want more standard operations." From Markel's
perspective, he added, that may involve combining sheeted bread technology from Tromp Group
with AMF systems, putting AMF dividers on Tromp
Group pizza lines, or Reading Bakery Systems continuous mixers on both AMF and Tromp Group lines.
Mark Salman, president of the Middleby Food
Processing Group, listed several reasons for this
wave of merger and acquisition activity and its impact on BEMA. He suggested many baking companies now prefer fully integrated solutions, and
they're increasing pressure on BEMA members
and other OEMs to provide low cost of ownership

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