Yildiz combines biscuit and confectionery businesses to form new company

Food company Yildiz Holding has combined its biscuit, chocolate and confectionery businesses to form a new global entity called Plaids.

The businesses affected includes premium chocolate brand Godiva Chocolatier; European biscuit firm United Biscuits; Turkish biscuits and confectionery brand Ulker; and DeMet’s Candy Company.

These brands collectively form a $5.2bn business, which will position Pladis as a global organisation.

Yildiz Holding chairman Murat Ulker said: "Establishing Pladis is the first step in realising the long-term strategy of Yildiz Holding.

"We are bringing together some of the world’s best loved brands and combining their 350 years of experience to form a new family company. We will be a global leader in biscuits and confectionery, and bring ‘bites of happiness’ to every corner of the world."

Pladis will have 36 factories in 13 countries and employ 26,000 people.

The new entity will be led CEO Cem Karakas and vice-chairman Ali Ulker.

Karakas said: "We have significant growth ambitions for pladis with the aim to outperform the category standard year-on-year. This is supported by our capital position and the strength of our manufacturing as one of only two companies in the world that produce such a broad range of biscuits and confectionery.

"As one global family, we can be more agile, allowing us to innovate around our products and develop more brand synergies, which are already benefitting our business."