LONDON — Yildiz Holding, the largest food company in the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region, is splitting its biscuit, chocolate and confectionery businesses into a new company: Pladis. Named after the Pleiades constellation, a group of seven stars visible from anywhere on earth, Pladis is expected to be listed on the London Stock Exchange within the next three to four years.
The new business will be made up of Godiva Chocolatier, a premium chocolate brand; McVitie’s, a biscuit brand with a heritage in the United Kingdom and Europe; Ulker, a biscuit and confectionery brand in Turkey and the Middle East; and DeMet’s Candy Co., creator of Flipz chocolate pretzels and Turtles covered nut clusters. Together, the brands that now make up Pladis generated about $5.2 billion in revenue last year, according to Yildiz.
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| Murat Ulker, chairman of Yildiz Holding |
“Establishing Pladis is the first step in realizing the long-term strategy of Yildiz Holding,” said Murat Ulker, chairman of Yildiz Holding. “We are bringing together some of the world’s best loved brands and combining their 350 years of experience to form a new family company. We will be a global leader in biscuits and confectionery, and bring ‘bites of happiness’ to every corner of the world.”
Pladis will employ 26,000 people across 36 facilities in 13 countries. The company will be led by Cem Karakas as chief executive officer and Ali Ulker as vice-chairman. The company will operate on a regional basis, with each region responsible for the manufacturing and commercial activities of the full Pladis brand portfolio.
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| Cem Karaka, c.e.o. of Pladis |
“We have significant growth ambitions for Pladis with the aim to outperform the category standard year-on-year,” Mr. Karakas said. “This is supported by our capital position and the strength of our manufacturing as one of only two companies in the world that produce such a broad range of biscuits and confectionery. As one global family, we can be more agile, allowing us to innovate around our products and develop more brand synergies — which are already benefitting our business.”
Yildiz is a global confectionery and biscuits company with more than 320 brands in more than 40 different categories. The company has 77 facilities in 14 countries, and exports to more than 100 countries. Yildiz has annual revenues of about $12 billion.
