From Star Foods to sweets

Emanuel Mitsalis, former shareholder of snacks producer Star Foods, which was recently taken over by the US giant Pepsi, will take to “sweeter” deals this autumn.

“We plan to build up a production facility from scrap, either for ”sweets” or for breakfast cereals. The investment will amount to several million euros”, says Kostas Mitsalis, former general manager of Star Foods and one of the two sons of Emanuel Mitsalis, the founder of the company. Mitsalis says that they would also shortly enter the Hungarian chips and snacks market.

“Until we enter this business segment, we are on a short vacation, but we are handling smaller-sized businesses (a call center, a cleaning products company).

“I believe that, on the food segment, the categories that haven”t been tapped into so far are the cookies, wafers and breakfast cereals. I am not ruling out our investing in other sectors as well, in the following period”, says Mitsalis.

Snacks Venture Europe (SVE), a joint venture between PepsiCo and General Mills, a producer in the milling and bakery industry, took over toward the end of last year, in a deal worth over 20 million euros, the entire stake in Star Foods, leaders of the domestic snacks market. Subsequently, General Mills sold its participation in SVE to Pepsi.

“Our father has developed numberless business and when the price is right he sells them. The bid from Pepsi was too good to pass on”, says Mitsalis. He states negotiations with Pepsi lasted for less than one year.

stelian.negrea@zf.ro