Dutch meat giant Vion said it is looking at developing plans to re-start the Weyl business it acquired last month.
Vion announced in July that it would buy parts of local beef processor Weyl Beef Products, which was declared bankrupt in May.
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Mark Van Der Lee, a spokesperson for Vion told just-food today (26 August) that the purchase will allow the company to further develop its strategy of adding value in processing beef.
“Since Weijl has gone bankrupt and given the fact that the market (the one of slaughtering cattle and processing beef and veal) has been divided between existing market players, Vion starts more or less from scratch and has to see whether we can build up positions,” Van der Lee said.
“That’s why we only start with a limited amount of own staff and the workforce for production that exists are flexworkers,” he added.
Weijl is actively involved in the production and sale of pink veal with own brand Weijlander.
Vion said it has acquired the brand and, given the approval of the European Commission yesterday, is currently developing plans on how to start up the business once again.
“That also means that we will reflect on whether we want to have a market position in branded pink veal,” Van der Lee said.
“Our strategy is a market driven one: how and up to what level we can restart with the Weijl assets is determined by the market… where we can buy cattle for slaughtering and further processing as well as the market to sell to: retail, industry, food service etc,” he added.
