Stork Food Systems Intends to Acquire Nijal

15/09/06 Stork Food Systems and Nijal have signed a letter of intent for the acquisition of Nijal Technologie Alimentaire by Stork. Based in France, Nijal manufactures machines for processing of meat that are complementary to those of Stork Food Systems. The company achieved a turnover of 6 million in 2005 with 30 employees. It has offices in France, Italy, Spain and the USA. Stork's worldwide sales and marketing organisation will open new markets and create new opportunities for Nijals innovative machines. The acquisition price will not be disclosed until final agreement has been reached, which is expected to take place before the end of 2006.

After the Townsend acquisition earlier this year, the planned acquisition of Nijal represents an further step in the implementation of Stork Food Systems' strategy of strengthening its position as a system supplier in the field of further processing of meat. The planned acquisition will also offer good opportunities for further growth of Nijal. The portfolio of Nijal consists of innovative equipment for further processing of meat; 65% of sales comes from machines developed in the past 3 years.

Nijal has been developing innovative meatprocessing equipment since 1982. It has always focused on increasing productivity through automatization, without sacrificing home-made quality. Nijal produces a full spectrum of equipment for high-speed production of shish kebabs, sandwiches, meatballs, formed value-added ground meat products and fresh sausages, as well as equipment for denesting trays and automatic tray loading. Nijal has been producing and selling in Europe for many years, and recently opened an American subsidiary to provide North American clients with the highest level of technical support.