No. 5 worldwide malt producer GrainCorp from Australia disposes of Thüringer Malz and its 20 year-old 15,000 tons malthouse in Clingen/Eastern Germany. Buyer is specialty maltster Mich. Weyermann from Bamberg/Germany at an undisclosed sum effective as of 2.1.2017.
GrainCorp bought Thüringer Malz and its parent company GermanMalt five years ago in order to gain a foothold on the continental European market and to have a better access to export markets in Africa and Latin America. Two years ago, GrainCorp already closed and demolished the second malting plant of Thüringer Malz in Sangerhausen, which had a 35,000 metric tons malting capacitty and was therefore much larger but older than the Clingen plant. The two East German plants were focused solely on the domestic market and were too small in comparison to the other 18 malthouses of the GrainCorp group.
GrainCorp rests now with the two much larger malthouses in Worms and Mühlheim/Ruhr in Western Germany with a combined capacity of 140,000 metric tons. Both are operated under the Schill Malz name and are mainly focused on the booming export business.
GrainCorp Malt is performing strong with an EBITDA of A$161 million ($118 miilion) for the fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, up 15% from A$140 million ($103 miilion) in the same period of last year. The company is driven by the worldwide increase of demand for malt and the growing craft beer sector, which uses a higher proportion of malt compared to traditional beer. Mark Palmquist, managing director and CEO GrainCorp, said: “Challenges have largely affected the grains and oils businesses, however they have been partially offset by another strong performance from GrainCorp Malt.”
By mid-2017 GrainCorp will finish the expansion of its Pocatello malthouse in the U.S. from 100,000 to 220,000 metric tons.
