Conaxess Trade is happy to officially announce a partnership with Upfield for the new stand-alone Spreads business

Conaxess Trade is happy to officially announce a partnership with Upfield for the new stand-alone Spreads business beginning August 1st, 2018 where Conaxess Trade proudly will take responsibility for the Swedish Field Sales service. In Sweden the Spreads business includes the brands Flora, Becel, Milda, Lätta and Crème Bonjour. The total consumer sales of the brands are app. SEK 1 Bn.

The background is that Upfield in December 2017 received a binding offer for the Spreads business (includes *BCS Europe and North America, Rest of World Spreads and UFS Spreads). The transfer will take place gradually and the first stage is planned from Q3 2018 – when the Spreads business will begin operating as a stand-alone organization.

Conaxess Trade will significantly increase its scale in the market, providing best in class FMCG services by further strengthening the sales force coverage, and not to mention the higher relevance and access to consumers.

Oddgeir Hole, Managing Director Conaxess Trade Sweden, comments: “We are extremely happy and proud to get the trust from Mr Ola Pettersson and his team to get responsibility for the Field Sales Services for these amazing brands. Today’s announcement is another important step for Conaxess Trade Sweden towards our goal of being the leader in outsourced Marketing, Logistics, and Sales Services. This cooperation will help us to fully deliver on our “Outsourcing Partner Strategy” and increase our scale in Sweden. Together with our Brand Owners and Customers we look forward to jointly further develop our business in Sweden”.

Ola Pettersson, Interim General Manager Upfield comments: “We have a strong commitment to grow our plant based food category and believe Conaxess Trade, with their national coverage of the trade and capabilities, will be a great partner for delivering high quality Field Sales service in Sweden. This will ensure a continued great relation with our customers and we will ensure the high standards set by Upfield will be kept and the business to run as usual”.

“Conaxess Trade has significantly changed over time and is developing from a traditional distributor to become a vibrant leading FMCG Outsourcing Company with best in class services in Marketing, Category Management, Sales, Reporting, Business Development. It clearly demonstrates its ability to apply its resources and expertise not only to enter new businesses, but to lead major FMCG market segments. We’re excited to cooperate with the stand-alone Spreads business as we focus our combined energies serving our customers and developing the business”

– Uwe Thellmann, CEO Conaxess Trade Group.

About the Spreads business:

In December 2017 Upfield received a binding offer for the Spreads business (includes *BCS Europe and North America, Rest of World Spreads and UFS Spreads) from leading global investment firm KKR. The brands involved in the Nordic region are: Flora, Becel, Milda, Lätta, Crème Bonjour, Crème Fine and Oma. In Sweden the sales to consumers of the brands add up to app. 1bn SEK, in Finland more than EUR 75mn, and in Denmark app. DKK 210mn.