Strengthening the cooperation in breeding, but ending the intent to merge process 

Leading breeding companies in Europe have intensively investigated the synergies of cooperation including the intention to merge. This investigation has identified many synergies which, however, in the current situation cannot be fully exploited to benefit the members and customers. Therefore, the decision to end the merging process has been made.

December 16, 2021, the owners of Evolution in France, MASTERRIND in Germany and  VikingGenetics (owned by Faba, Växa and VikingDanmark) in the Nordic countries decided to stop the process of merging the three companies Evolution, MASTERRIND and  VikingGenetics.

On December 1, 2020, the three companies Evolution, MASTERRIND and VikingGenetics announced the foundation of the new cooperative Arcowin starting January 1, 2021. Arcowin was established to support dairy and beef cattle breeding programs from  Evolution,  MASTERRIND and VikingGenetics, with the main aim of making use of their respective genetic resources and initiating research and development collaborations.

In December 2020, the three companies agreed to investigate further synergies of the cooperation. Based on an initial analysis of the synergies, the board of directors of the cooperatives announced the intention to merge activities in April 2021 in the areas of research and development, breeding, production as well as international sales and marketing.

On December 16, 2021, the management and board of directors of Arcowin came to the conclusion that, due to legal and technical issues, the merger of the companies or parts of the companies would not create further synergies.  The intended possible structure would not be beneficial for the members.

“The merger of the three companies should bring advantages for our members and worldwide customers. This is currently not possible to gain due to legal rules. Depending on this reason we decided to stop the merger,” says Jörg Stubbemann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of MASTERRIND GmbH.

The three partners will continue to work on joint breeding programs and to collaborate on research and development projects, while each company acts independently. Our work will continue to ensure the most sustainable and highest possible genetic progress of various breeds to open the greatest benefit of members and customers worldwide.

MASTERRIND GmbH  Managing Directors