Pinguin has an exclusive mandate to negotiate a possible takeover of the Austria Frost Group. Negotiations are in progress. Unilever, being the largest customer of Austria Frost, confirmed its intention to continue sourcing from Austria Frost after the possible acquisition by Pinguin. Unilever Austria is considerably reliant on Austria Frost for the sourcing of its Iglo products.

A possible acquisition of Austria Frost depends, among other things, on the possibility of refinancing the company’s assets and operations. With this in mind, Pinguin is in discussion with various financial and industrial partners and investors. Furthermore, the negotiations concerning a material change to the cost structure have not yet been finalised.

Austria Frost Group is a division of A-11 Holding and 11er Nahrungsmittel GmbH. The group comprises three entities, namely Austria Frost Holding GmbH, Austria Frost Nahrungsmittel GmbH and Immler & Co GmbH.
With a workforce of some 350, the group turned over EUR 68.5 million last year. Austria Frost's production plant is situated 10 km east of Vienna, in the middle of the Marchfeld horticultural region, and is centrally located in relation to major cities such as Vienna, Budapest, Zagreb, Prague and Bratislava. Austria Frost has modern production facilities and a fully-automated logistic platform with a capacity of 40,000 pallet spaces. In addition to basic frozen vegetables (50%) such as spinach, peas and beans, Austria Frost, which has a 60% share of the Austrian market, produces a whole range of value-added products (32%) such as soups, sauces, vegetable dishes, lasagne and frozen pasta products (18%). Unilever's Iglo products account for 48% of the turnover. Alongside its own products, the Austria Frost Group has a significant trading activity through its subsidiary Immler.

Pinguin, which specialises in freshly frozen and freshly chilled vegetables and vegetable products, has seven operating units: Pinguin Westrozebeke, Pinguin Langemark, Pinguin Ieper (Ypres), Pinguin Salads (Lendelede), Pinguin Aquitaine (Ychoux, France), Pinguin Foods UK (King's Lynn, UK).
Pinguin focuses primarily on companies in the Food Industry, Food Service and Retail sector. Pinguin offers its customers a comprehensive concept - “The Vegetable Solution” - which takes advantage of the increasing market trend towards “component cooking”. The group has its own R&D division, so ensuring innovation in products and processes.


Pinguin sluit het transitie boekjaar 2004 af na 18 maanden met een omzet van 225,7 miljoen EURO.

Omzet van het laatste semester (eerste semester 2005) stijgt met 2,5% ten opzichte van de eerste zes maanden van 2004, maar bedrijfsresultaten lijden onder slechte marktomstandigheden

- Seizoenseffect, herstructureringskosten, hogere energie- en transportprijzen en lagere verkoopprijzen (-6%) drukken de resultaten van het eerste semester van 2005.
- Netto financiële schuld daalt tijdens het eerste semester verder met 7,5 miljoen EUR tot 48,6 miljoen EUR dankzij aangehouden inspanningen van de groep om het werkkapitaal te verlagen.
- Sluiting van de Bretoense “Euragra” afdeling heeft een éénmalige negatieve impact op het resultaat van 0,9 miljoen EUR van het afgesloten boekjaar (laatste semester). Integratie van deze activiteit in de vestiging van Westrozebeke levert een jaarlijkse geschatte besparing op van 1 miljoen EUR.
- Slechte weersomstandigheden en tegenvallende oogstrendementen over gans Europa veroorzaken een algemene schaarste van groenten waardoor een herstel van de marktomstandigheden mag verwacht worden vanaf het eerste kwartaal van 2006.
- Kostenbesparingsplan van 4,8 miljoen EUR is in volle implementatie.