Lallemand announces the recent acquisition of Grenaa’s yeast and molasses alcohol factory, in Denmark, from V&S Distillers, leader of the Northern European spirits market. The acquisition will strengthen Lallemand’s yeast production capacity to respond to the growing needs of the industry for probiotics, a booming market in the wake of the ban on antibiotic growth promoters, as well as the recently authorized Selenium yeast (Alkosel ^®R397), recognized for its remarkable bioavailability.
For V&S Distillers, the move is part of the group strategy to focus on its core business, which is the production, marketing and sale of branded spirits. Grenaa’s yeast plant employs today a staff of around 80 people and has been registered as De Danske Gærfabrikker A/S.

Lallemand and V&S have cooperated for many years, and, Grenaa yeast plant, which answers the highest European quality standards of the feed industry such as FAMI-QS and ISO 9001, has already been producing specific live yeast and yeast extracts for our animal nutrition applications (Levucell^®SC, Levucell^®SB, Alkosel^®R397…).

Jean Chagnon, President of Lallemand Inc., said: ”Lallemand plans to make Grenaa the flagship plant of the specialty yeast and yeast extract business and we count on the continued leadership of Per Rasmussen, President and General Manager of De Danske Gærfabrikker A/S, and Thomas Borg, Factory Manager and their team and the support of the other Grenaa workforce to achieve this.”

”By selling our yeast operation now we will be able to strengthen our core activities, and the plant in Grenaa can be part of core business in another company, which we find the best solution for all parties. The plant in Grenaa has always contributed positively to V&S Distillers and has been an efficient and well-run part of the company, and I would like to thank all employees for an excellent performance through the years.” says Rolf Cassergren, President V&S Distillers.