Chr. Hansen name new CFO

06/12/05 As of January Henning Jakobsen from Colgate Palmolive will be the new CFO of ingredients company Chr. Hansen. Jakobsen (45) has been headhuntet from Colgate Palmolive, where he has been for 16 years, including three years as CFO of Colgate's nordic activities. For the past two years he been based in the US, working as CFO of the company's North American activites with a turnover of USD 2.3 billion.

Simultaneously with the new management team, Chr. Hansen annonces a positive result of the 2004-05 fiscal year, which marked a continued strengthening of the company's position on many markets. While the year was in many ways characterized by the sale to the equity fund PAI partners, sales continued growing: In total, a 3% increase to a DKK 3,485 million was recorded compared to DKK 3,420 in the previous year.

As the settlement of the separation and the sale of the ingredients company has not been finalized yet, the year's EBITA contribution has not been finalized either. However, it is expected to end up between DKK 325 and 335 million, which is lower than expected at the beginning of the year. This is very much owing to extraordinary costs in connection with the sale of the company.

“An important focus area for next year will be efficiency improvement, and over the past couple of months we have implemented a restructuring of our organization to fulfil that goal. In connection with the new organization, we have made some adjustments in the management team, but now we are in place, having gained a good balance between experienced Chr. Hansen people and new, fresh blood. With this, I believe we are well equipped for the future's high demands in terms of growth and profitability," explains Lars Frederiksen, who Thursday annonced the company's new Chairman of the Board, Jens Bigum, former CEO of Europe's largest dairy company, ARLA.