Hamburger plant will produce for McDonald's Ukraine and others
The principle meat supplier to fast-food giant McDonald`s is close to acquiring a controlling stake in a meat processing plant in Kozyatyn, Vinnytsya region.
The acquisition is expected to yield OSI, based in Aurora, Illinois, a controlling stake in the Kozyatyn Poultry Plant, which has produced mostly beef in recent years, not poultry. OSI has leased space at the plant up until now, installing a modern beef patty production line. The acquisition would give OSI its first production facility in Ukraine. The group’s Ukrainian subsidiary, ESCA Food Solutions, has used the production line at the factory to supply beef to the Ukrainian operations of McDonald’s.
“The acquisition of the majority interest in the Kozyatyn Poultry Joint Stock Company in Vinnytsya, Ukraine, is part of OSI’s strategy of developing an integrated supply chain for beef in Ukraine,” said Hartmut Schimetschek, director of OSI International Holding GmbH, a German subsidiary of OSI, which is responsible for the acquisition.
“The Ukrainian market has been identified by OSI as providing the right ingredients for growth – a growing economy, a knowledgeable and skilled workforce and an increasingly sophisticated consumer base. The Kozyatyn plant is a modern meat slaughtering facility that will meet OSI’s requirements for expansion in Ukraine for the foreseeable future”, Schimetschek added.
In a Jan. 13 statement, Ukraine’s Antimonopoly Committee announced it had granted permission for OSI International Holding to acquire more than 50 percent of shares in the plant. In Soviet days, the Kozyatyn plant functioned largely as a chicken slaughter plant, with a small beef operation. It was also known as one of the largest producers of dried egg powder.
Since Soviet days, the plant’s chicken business has slowly died out, while beef production has gradually increased.
OSI launched a production facility at the plant in 2003 through a leasing agreement. McDonald’s officials claims that about $1.7 million was invested into the production line, adding that it has produced more than 90 million hamburgers since 2003.
OSI officials have not revealed how much they would pay for the acquisition; but a spokesman for Kyiv Communications Group, which handles PR for OSI International Holding GmbH in Ukraine, said the plant was purchased from a South Africa based intermediary called Diggs Trade and Finance SA.
OSI was founded as a small Chicago meat market in 1909 by German-born Otto Kolschowsky.
Today, the group is one of the largest privately-held food companies in the world with annual turnover exceeding $2 billion from operations in 85 countries across the globe. The group currently covers about 85 percent of meat supplies to McDonalds.
Mykhailo Shuranov, a spokesperson at McDonald’s Ukraine, said ESCA Food Solutions supplies the fast-food company with all of its beef needs in Ukraine, adding that some beef is exported for consumption to restaurants in other countries.
OSI officials say their company is dedicated to developing its business in Ukraine, adding that the group currently operates a cattle farm in Kyiv oblast.Schimetschek said that in the future the Kozyatyn plant will export fresh and frozen meat to Russia and other countries in the region.
