ODW Frischprodukte Buys German FrieslandCampina Location

In addition to the land and buildings, ODW Frischprodukte will also purchase part of the equipment at Elsterwerda for the production of yoghurt and desserts.

Oct 21 2010 --- The German company, ODW Frischprodukte GmbH, a subsidiary of Odenwald Früchte GmbH, will take over the FrieslandCampina location in Elsterwerda (Germany) in December 2010. In addition to the land and buildings, ODW Frischprodukte will also purchase part of the equipment for the production of yoghurt and desserts.

Part of the agreement between the two companies is that a number of FrieslandCampina dairy products will be produced in Elsterwerda until 2013. The new owner, ODW Frischprodukte, will take on the 330 employees, but plans to reduce the workforce gradually. FrieslandCampina will relocate production lines for yoghurt and desserts to other locations in Gütersloh and Heilbronn by 31 March 2012.

In December 2009, FrieslandCampina announced that it wished to close a number of locations in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, including the Elsterwerda location, in mid-2011 and relocate production to other locations.

Dirk Jan Hoekstra, director supply chain FrieslandCampina Consumer Products Europe: "Following the announcement of the closure, we investigated the options of finding a new use for the Elsterwerda location and we succeeded. We’re convinced that the transfer to ODW Frischprodukte means that the Elsterwerda location is in good hands."