NESTLE SA said on December 19 that it was buying Delta Ice Cream for about 240 million euro to expand in the growing ice-cream market in Greece and the Balkans.

Delta Ice Cream, which had sales of 122 million euro last year, is the leading ice cream business in Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia-Montenegro.

More than 96 per cent of Delta Ice Cream is owned by the Greek milk and dairy products group Delta Holdings. The deal is Nestle's latest in a string of acquisitions in recent years.

Delta Ice Cream's main brands, sold in large quantities in Bulgaria too, include Nirvana, Boss, Aloma and Magnum.

Nestle won the Best Food Company in Europe award in Global Finance magazine's eighth annual survey of the World's Best Companies in November 2005. The awards seek to recognise the best performing global leaders and top regional players around the world.

Nestle entered Bulgaria in 1993 and since then it has turned into the leading food company in the country, with products manufactured here exported to many countries in Europe.

In an interview with The Sofia Echo in July, Yannis Lazaridis, managing director of Nestle Bulgaria, said the company had obtained the status of the country's largest food company in terms of sales and profitability.  

The Bulgarian subsidiary of the Swiss-headquartered giant tripled its sales in the 2000-2004 period and continued to grow in the first half of 2005 by 32 per cent. Currently Nestle Bulgaria controls 62 per cent of the market's culinary segment with its Maggi products, 65 per cent of the breakfast cereal sector and 49 per cent of the cocoa beverages sector.

Nestle's greatest prize brand is Nescafe, which has 80 per cent of the soluble coffee sector. It also has a 20 per cent share of boxed chocolates and chocolate bars, making it second in the country. 

The company manufactures Kit Kat Chunky in Bulgaria, and it has been its most successful investment in terms of particular products. The chocolate bar is popular not only in Bulgaria but also in other Central and Eastern European countries. Kit Kat brought better turnover and also established one of the strategic brands of Nestle on the Bulgarian and regional market.

Commenting on the ice-cream deal, Nestle Bulgaria said they believed "the integration of Delta in the international holding structure of Nestle will secure a more prospective future for the company". 

The Bulgarian branch of Delta was its first ever representation abroad. So far, Delta has invested more than 35 million euro in two distribution centres - in the capital Sofia and in the Black Sea city of Varna, in an ice-cream factory in Varna, as well as in development of new products, among other investments.

Delta claims a 30 per cent share on the packed ice-cream market segment in this country. In 2005, it also debuted on the frozen food market and revealed plans to invest six million euro in building a frozen vegetables factory in Bulgaria.