ST. LOUIS, Aug. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Bunge North America, the North American
operating arm of Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG), announced that it
purchased the margarine assets of The C.F. Sauer Company (CFS)
which includes the margarine plant of its subsidiary, Dean Foods
Company, in Sandston, Virginia and
the margarine production and packaging assets at the CFS facility
in New Century, Kansas. Financial
terms of the acquisition have not been released.
"Bunge is a global leader in margarine production and this
purchase enables us to expand our position in the U.S. market to
support our customers," said Soren
Schroder, president and CEO, Bunge
North America. "With this additional capacity, we are
strengthening our integrated food and ingredient value chain to
provide additional products, improved risk management and better
logistics to customers."
The two facilities have an annual capacity of nearly 400 million
pounds of margarine. Products range from five gram portion
cups that are used by restaurants to one-ton totes sold to food
processors.
"Adding C.F. Sauer's margarine assets to Bunge's business opens
up several exciting innovation opportunities for our lower
saturated and reduced trans fat products," said Rodney Perry, vice president and general
manager, Bunge Oils. "With the addition of the Sandston facility and its dedicated team, this
new shipping location will help us better serve existing customers
and reach out to new customers in an important market. We
also look forward to working closely with CFS in the transition at
New Century."
Bunge will begin operating the Sandston facility immediately. Bunge
intends to relocate the margarine production and packaging assets
from the New Century facility to
other Bunge packaging plants. Until that relocation can
occur, CFS will continue to produce margarines for Bunge under a
co-packing arrangement in order to meet Bunge's customers'
expectations.
The Sandston plant currently
operates with about 160 employees. Subject to normal hiring
procedures, Bunge intends to hire most of the employees.
About Bunge North
America
Bunge North America
(www.bungenorthamerica.com), the North American operating arm of
Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG), is a vertically integrated food and feed
ingredient company, supplying raw and processed agricultural
commodities and specialized food ingredients to a wide range of
customers in the livestock, poultry, food processor, foodservice
and bakery industries. With headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, Bunge North America and its subsidiaries operate
grain elevators, oilseed processing plants, edible oil refineries
and packaging facilities, and corn dry mills in the U.S.,
Canada and Mexico.
About Bunge Limited
Bunge Limited (www.bunge.com, NYSE: BG) is a leading global
agribusiness and food company with approximately 32,000 employees
in more than 30 countries. Bunge buys, sells, stores and
transports oilseeds and grains to serve customers worldwide;
processes oilseeds to make protein meal for animal feed and edible
oil products for commercial customers and consumers; produces sugar
and ethanol from sugarcane; mills wheat and corn to make
ingredients used by food companies; and sells fertilizer in North
and South America. Founded
in 1818, the company is headquartered in White Plains, New York.
Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking
Statements
This press release contains both historical and
forward-looking statements. All statements, other than
statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be,
forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A
of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These
forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts, but
rather reflect our current expectations and projections about our
future results, performance, prospects and opportunities. We
have tried to identify these forward-looking statements by using
words including "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect,"
"anticipate," "believe," "plan," "intend," "estimate," "continue"
and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are
subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that
could cause our actual results, performance, prospects or
opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or
implied by, these forward-looking statements. These factors
include, among others, industry conditions, including fluctuations
in supply, demand and prices for agricultural commodities and other
raw materials and products used in our business, fluctuations in
energy and freight costs and competitive developments in our
industries; the effects of weather conditions and the outbreak of
crop and animal disease on our business; global and regional
agricultural, economic, financial and commodities market,
political, social and health conditions; the outcome of pending
regulatory and legal proceedings; our ability to complete,
integrate and benefit from acquisitions, dispositions, joint
ventures and strategic alliances; changes in government policies,
laws and regulations affecting our business, including agricultural
and trade policies, tax regulations and biofuels legislation; and
other factors affecting our business generally. The
forward-looking statements included in this release are made only
as of the date of this release, and except as otherwise required by
federal securities law, we do not have any obligation to publicly
update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect
subsequent events or circumstances.
SOURCE Bunge North America