Norwegian owner pledges bright future for Estrella crisps 

Norwegian private equity firm Herkules Capital has pledged a bright future for Estrella after acquiring Sweden’s leading potato crisp brand from US food giant Kraft. 

Oslo-based Herkules hinted that the company – which it is acquiring together with Norway’s Maarud crisp brand – had suffered from under-investment as it was a non-core business for Kraft.  

“Kraft has not prioritized the salted snacks business in the Nordic and the Baltic countries as it is not one of their key categories,” said Herkules Capital managing partner Gert Munthe.

“We see great potential in releasing the power of the Maarud and Estrella brands and the many highly skilled employees in the company.” 

Herkules said no redundancies were planned at Estrella, which has its Swedish production base and 120 employees at Angered near Göteborg.  

“We’re not planning to make any cutbacks. Quite the opposite – we’re going to invest substantially in marketing and product development,” Munthe said. 

The objective, he added, was to make Estrella and Maarud the number one snack brands in Sweden, Norway and the Baltic states. 

Under Kraft’s ownership, Estrella’s share of the Swedish market fell from 35 percent to 20 percent.

 
Sources: Just-food.com, Herkules Private Equity Fund, Göteborgs-Posten