Tetra Pak has acquired Obram, the Polish company just short of 40 years old that provides cheese technology solutions and equipment in Poland, Russia, Belarus and many parts of Eastern Europe.
The acquisition is an example of the company’s ability to see a growing market and place itself in a position to capitalise on the opportunities that opens. According to the Euromonitor report, Cheese: Key Markets, Categories and Value Adding Trends, soft cheese accounted for 50% of absolute value growth of the total global cheese market between 2013 and 2014.
Obram’s greatest strength lies in its high quality production solutions for fresh cheese, cottage cheese and semi-hard cheese applications, including mould handling and brining.
“We are world’s undisputed leader in production of technological lines for traditional fresh cheese and at the forefront in production of technological lines for ripening cheese,” the company states in its profile. The company was founded in 1976 as Research and Development Center for Dairy Equipment. It now has two production facilities of overall area of 6000 m2, equipped with latest technology equipment, including CNC centres, steel cutting lasers and specialised technological line for tanks production. Obram currently employs around 280 people, the majority of whom are based at one of the company’s two production sites in Olsztyn Poland.
According to the Agricultural Outlook, published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Food and Agriculture Organization, world cheese consumption will grow by 16% over the next decade. As consumers become more health conscious, the popularity of fresh cheese, and lighter soft cheese, is expected to increase, driven by product innovation and increased penetration.
High continued, “This acquisition will enhance our ability to help customers capture these opportunities, particularly in places like Central America, South America and India, where consumer demand for fresh cheese is growing at a tremendous pace. Obram’s automated solutions provide a higher quality, more efficient alternative to the manual or semi-automated installations that are still widely used.”
Zbigniew Raczynski, president and chief executive officer of Obram said, “From an Obram perspective, this move is full of potential: it will help us to grow our business through Tetra Pak’s global sales channels, while allowing us to provide a broader range of products and services to our existing customers – everything from filtration and whey treatment to technical support and parts.”
