Bell Food Group

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Bell Food Group AG

logo
legal form Corporation
ISIN CH0315966322
founding 1869
Seat Basel , Switzerland
management Lorenz Wyss
(Chairman of the Group Management )
Hansueli Loosli
( Chairman of the Board of Directors )
Number of employees 11,960 (12,195 FTE )
sales 4.1 billion CHF
Branch food
Website www.bellfoodgroup.com
Status: 2019

The Bell Food Group AG is a meat and convenience food processor . The company is the market leader in Switzerland. In 2019, the Bell Food Group generated sales of 4.1 billion Swiss francs . The Bell Food Group has 65 locations in 15 European countries and employs 11,960 people.

organization

The headquarters of the Bell Food Group is in Basel, Switzerland. Since July 1, 2019, the Bell Food Group has been divided into the business areas Bell Switzerland, Bell International, Convenience and Finance / Services. The Bell International division is made up of the Bell Germany, Bell Western / Eastern Europe and Hubers / Sütag divisions. The Convenience division comprises the Eisberg , Hilcona and Hügli divisions .

history

Bell was founded in 1869 as an ox butcher by Samuel Bell Roth (1840–1920) in Basel . Thirty years later, the Samuel Bell Sons sole proprietorship was founded, and eight years later (1907) it was converted into a stock corporation. In the same year, an area at Elsässerstrasse 174-188 in Basel was acquired, which still serves as the headquarters and production site today. As early as 1912, Bell was the largest meat producer in Switzerland and one year later it entered into an alliance (“Bell Alliance”) with what was then the Association of Swiss Consumers (VSK) (now Coop Cooperative). The group of companies was transformed into a holding company in 1999 . In 2001, Bell took over all of the Coop butcher shops. Bell spun off its own butcher shops in 2004 by means of a management buyout . In 2005, Bell brought the retail division (Bell Gastro Service and Grande Boucherie du Molard), with the exception of Bell Catering, into the Transgourmet joint venture between Coop and the German Rewe Group . With effect from the beginning of 2008, Bell took over the French sausage and ham manufacturer Polette Group . On October 1, 2008, Bell AG acquired a 70 percent stake in the German meat products manufacturer Zimbo in Bochum . In November 2008, 75 percent of Abraham Schinken was acquired. At the end of 2009, all catering activities were sold to the SV Group . With effect from the beginning of 2011, Bell brought the convenience division into the Liechtenstein company Hilcona. In return, Bell took a 49% stake in Hilcona AG (the other of the two Hilcona shareholders is the Toni Hilti family trust). On May 1, 2015, Bell canceled the agreed option for a further two percent in Hilcona AG and thus became the majority shareholder with 51 percent.

The majority shareholder of Bell Food Group AG, which is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange, is the Coop Group Cooperative, based in Basel, with a 66.29 percent stake. Another shareholder with a 3.01 percent stake is J. Safra Sarasin Investmentfonds AG (a subsidiary of Bank J. Safra Sarasin ). The rest of the shares are in free float (as of December 31, 2014).

In 2014 the Federal Cartel Office imposed a three-digit million fine on 21 sausage companies, including Bell Germany , for illegal price fixing. On June 23, 2017, the German Federal Cartel Office closed the proceedings against Bell Germany. Because of the sausage gap , the bus had to be canceled.

With effect from March 1, 2016, the largest Austrian poultry meat manufacturer Hubers Landhendl was taken over. On April 1, 2016, Bell acquired the Zürcher Eisberg Group, which produces leaf salads with 400 employees in Switzerland and Eastern Europe and has a turnover of CHF 55 million.

Also in 2016, Bell took over the charcuterie specialist Cher-Mignon SA, based in the Valais municipality of Chermignon and with annual sales of CHF 13 million. On October 1, 2016, Bell acquired Geiser AG, a company based in Schlieren (ZH), which specializes in catering. With 120 employees, the company generates annual sales of around CHF 45 million.

The investments planned by Bell in Oensingen for the replacement of the existing cattle slaughterhouse on Dünnernstrasse and the establishment of the pig butchery have called the Swiss Transport Club (VCS) into action . The VCS criticizes the fact that the parking garage is to be built for all of the future 1200 employees. In the traffic forecast of the environmental impact report , it is assumed that all employees made their way to work individually with a motor vehicle . As a result, car pooling , public transport users or slow traffic with bicycles and pedestrians were not taken into account in these calculations , the VCS argues.

On January 15, 2018, Bell announced that it had acquired the Dr. A. Stoffel Holding takes over its capital stake of 50.2% with a share of voting rights of 65% in Hügli Holding . Hügli is to be continued as an independent corporate unit within Bell.

Also in 2018, Bell invested 2 million euros in the Dutch company Mosa Meat ; which plans to bring in vitro meat to the market by 2021 .

On the night of November 20-21, 2018, the slaughterhouse in Oensingen was occupied by 134 activists from the animal rights movement 269 ​​Liberation Animale . The occupation was evacuated by the police and more than 100 penalty orders were issued by the prosecutor . 34 activists have appealed against the orders received for coercion , trespassing and preventing an official act and must now appear in court.

At the end of February 2019 it was announced that the former Federal Councilor Doris Leuthard would take over a seat on Bell's Board of Directors on April 16, 2019.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Coop Group in figures: employees. (PDF; 184 KB) In: report.coop.ch. Retrieved September 3, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Factsheet Bell Food Group. (PDF; 439 KB) In: report.coop.ch. Retrieved September 3, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Annual report Bell Food Group AG 2019 (PDF). Retrieved March 10, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Press release Bell Food Group. December 18, 2019, accessed March 10, 2020 .
  5. ^ History of the Bell Group, Chronicle. Retrieved October 26, 2015 .
  6. ↑ New joint venture with Bell Gastro Service ( Memento from November 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), press release from Bell AG from January 10, 2005.
  7. ↑ Swiss buy 70 percent of Zimbo , Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung , Bochum, September 26, 2008.
  8. ^ Meat group Bell threatens trouble with Edeka and Lidl , Wirtschaftswoche from March 26, 2009
  9. ↑ Bell AG, company profile 2014, page 29
  10. ↑ Bell AG, 2014 annual report
  11. ↑ http://www.bundeskartellamt.de/SharedDocs/Meldung/DE/Pressemitteilungen/2014/15_07_2014_Wurst.html?nn=3591568
  12. ↑ German Federal Cartel Office closes proceedings against Bell Germany. June 23, 2017. Retrieved June 28, 2017 .
  13. ↑ The Bell Group invests in the future: Acquisition of the Huber Group and expansion of the Swiss locations . Bell media release dated December 16, 2015
  14. ↑ Bell Group to buy Swiss charcuterie firm Cher-Mignon , just-food, August 18, 2016
  15. ↑ Bell takes over Geiser AG, which specializes in catering. September 19, 2016, accessed March 13, 2017 .
  16. ↑ VCS wants to cut Bell parking garage by a third , Solothurner Zeitung from November 18, 2017, accessed on November 20, 2017.
  17. ↑ NZZ: Bell buys majority stake in soup manufacturer Hügli
  18. ↑ Bell Food Group: Bell Food Group invests in cultured meat. Bell Food Group's operating result in the first six months below previous year. In: bellfoodgroup.com, July 17, 2018, accessed on July 18, 2018.
  19. ↑ Slaughterhouse squatters celebrate their action. In: 20min.ch. November 21, 2018. Retrieved November 21, 2018 .
  20. ↑ 100 penalty orders after a protest against Bell. In: bauernzeitung.ch. May 8, 2019, accessed May 8, 2019 .
  21. ^ After the slaughterhouse protest: 34 activists come to court - including the organizer. In: solothurnerzeitung.ch. December 4, 2019, accessed December 8, 2019 .
  22. ↑ Doris Leuthard is nominated for the Coop Board of Directors. In: handelszeitung.ch . February 26, 2019, accessed February 26, 2019 .