Cargill sells malt business to Axéréal

03-Jan-2019 - Last updated on 03-Jan-2019 at 11:00 GMT

The sale is expected to boost Axéréal's global malt footprint.

French grain cooperative Axéréal will acquire Cargill’s malt business under the Axéréal malt subsidiary Boortmalt, affecting 15 global facilities and more than 500 people.

Cargill has been a fixture in the malt business since 1979 with its family of brands Cargill Malt, Prairie Malt and Joe White Maltings. The sale of the malt business was announced at the end of December.

According to Cargill, the malt network it has sold to Axéréal “spans the four primary barley growing regions of the world,” where its facilities “produce over two million metric tons of high quality malt annually.”

Boortmalt is a leading supplier of malt for brewers, distillers and micro-brewers, operating 10 malting plants in Europe that produces more than a million tons of malt per year.

The sale will allow Boortmalt greater access to a global footprint and “offer further growth opportunities for Cargill's Malt business and its people,” according to Cargill. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2019.

Axereal has 13,000 cooperative members and 3,200 employees and uses its site in Antwerp, Belgium, to export 50% of its total production to emerging markets.