Accent Equity sells Nordic Bake-Off

Accent Equity is divesting Nordic Bake-Off to Vaasan & Vaasan, the Finnish Group of bakery businesses owned by CapVest Equity Partners. Nordic Bake-Off is a Nordic market leader in the manufacture and distribution of partly prepared bakery products.

Founded in 1986, the company develops, manufactures and sells products and services to convenience stores, service outlets (petrol stations, after-hours supermarkets, etc), bakeries, coffee shops, cafés and restaurants. The company is a leading distributor to all of these segments under its proprietary Bonjour trademark.

“Nordic Bake-Off has made important strides under our ownership,” says Niklas Sloutski, senior partner at Accent. “Its profitability has more than doubled, and it has restructured to become a highly focused leader in the Nordic bake-off market. We are very pleased that we can turn Nordic Bake-Off over to a company as prestigious as Vaasan & Vaasan, where it will play a key role in the ongoing expansion of their bake-off business.”

Accent acquired Nordic Bake-Off from CSM. Under the name of BakeMark Sweden, it had had been peripheral to CSM’s worldwide operations. Under the ownership of Accent Equity Partners, Nordic Bake-Off’s management came to play a much more central role, as evidenced by restructuring and rapid profitability gains. The acquisition of Gotlandsbrödet AB further strengthened its position in the Nordic market.

“The Swedish bake-off market, which has been expanding by approximately 6% a year, is set for additional growth,” says Vaasan & Vaasan CEO Matti Lappalainen. “This arrangement offers us an excellent opportunity to grow our bake-off business and reinforce our position, both in Sweden and throughout the Nordic region.”

“We are extremely proud of our performance and the ‘marriage’ that the restructuring effort in co-operation with Accent has led to,” says Nordic Bake-Off CEO Bernt Lindberg. “Vaasan & Vaasan’s resources and know-how will equip us even better going forward and will significantly improve our growth prospects in each market.”