MEXICO CITY — Grupo Bimbo S.A.B. de C.V. has signed an agreement to acquire Mankattan Group, a major baking company in China.
Mankattan bakes sliced bread, cake, buns and Yudane (a Japanese-style sandwich bread) as well as other baked foods and supplies “modern, traditional and quick-service restaurant customers in China,” Bimbo said.
The company has 1,900 employees and operates four plants, serving the urban and surrounding markets of Beijing (25 million), Shanghai (35 million), Sichuan (87 million) and Guangdong (104 million)
Bimbo said the transaction remains subject to “customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.”
Bimbo entered the China market around 2006. In a 2012 interview with Milling & Baking News, Daniel Servitje, chief executive officer, said Bimbo was enjoying good growth in China but still had a limited geographic footprint there.
“We are basically a Beijing and northern China baker,” Mr. Servitje said in the interview. “We certainly aren’t serving the entire nation. We bake some long-shelf-life items and some fresh products. The population is about 100 million in our market, but with a tiny per capita. Overall, the Chinese market is very small on a per capita basis in our industry compared with others. Second, we’re small in our industry. We’re not the leading baker in China.”
