A buyer credit guarantee from Denmark's Export and Investment Fund (EIFO) will help strengthen sales of "Danish Bacon" and Danish quality meat in England.
EIFO provides a buyer credit guarantee of half a billion DKK for Danish Crown's largest investment in England to date. The guarantee helps ensure the establishment of a new processing plant in Rochdale near Manchester.
"We do this because it is important for Denmark and important for the green transition, which Danish Crown and Danish agriculture are implementing. In addition, there are lots of export orders for Danish exporters in the SME segment and thus the financing is completely in line with our new strategy for Large Corporates," says CCO of EIFO, Peter Boeskov.
This is the first time that EIFO and Danish Crown have collaborated. Both Peter Boeskov and Thomas Ahle, who is CFO at Danish Crown, are pleased with the new collaboration.
"The cooperation with EIFO certainly makes it easier to finance larger investments outside Denmark's borders. We have been very happy with the dialogue with EIFO, and it is certainly not inconceivable that we will expand the collaboration in the years to come," says Thomas Ahle.
Danish Crown's investment in England will contribute to ensuring that Danish farmers get a better price for the meat that ends up on the table at the homes of English consumers, while at the same time supporting the jobs at Danish abattoirs.
Only Danish pork
The facility will exclusively receive Danish pork from Danish Crown abattoirs in Denmark. Whole sides of bacon are salted and smoked in Denmark, after which they are transported to the new facility. When the facility receives the 4-5 kilogram bacon sides from the Danish abattoirs, they are sliced, packaged and distributed.
The plant is modern and highly automated and will have a capacity of up to 720 tonnes of bacon and 200 tonnes of gammon (salted ham cut into slices) per week. In other words, Danish Crown gains control over the entire value chain from the Danish farmer to the British supermarkets. The plant will also save 764 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.
Danske Bank has provided the loan based on the buyer's credit guarantee from EIFO.
" On the basis of EIFO's guarantee, we have been able to provide attractive, alternative financing for Danish Crown. We are happy about that, just as we have appreciated the constructive dialogue between the parties throughout the process. We are ready to look at any other projects with Danish Crown and EIFO in the future," says Jesper Brøchner Pettersson from Structured Export Finance at Danske Bank.
Factory located in Manchester
The factory will be established in England, north of Manchester near the city of Rochdale in the Kingsway Business Park, which is an independent industrial area. Danish Crown leases an existing facility, and operations will begin in stages. The factory is expected to be up to full capacity by the summer of 2024.
We do this because it is important for Denmark and important for the green transition, which Danish Crown and Danish agriculture are working purposefully on
