A major announcement was made during this year’s 2014 World Pork Expo: TOPIGS International and Norsvin International have merged into one company: Topigs Norsvin. The merger will create a global swine breeding company with annual revenues in excess of US $179 million. The newly merged company’s headquarters will be located in Vught, the Netherlands. TOPIGS Nederland, Varkens K.I. Nederland and Norsvin SA were not part of the merger. Both companies are farmer owned and focus on genetic progress from applied research and development. Minority shareholders include farmer-owned meat processors and a feed supplier.
Moving forward TOPIGS Norsvin will align their R&D activities to create smarter investments to accelerate the genetic process and develop new products. Previously, the two companies partnered on many projects. Now, the combination of high-throughput phenotyping, large-scale computer tomography of boars, global nucleus breeding, massive gathering of production data and genomic selection will accelerate genetic progress and add value to the entire production chain.
“Results from new, combined products are so promising that we can see that these will have a global benefit,” said Bjarne Holm, Chief Development Officer of Topigs Norsvin. “Topigs Norsvin’s strategy involves excellent support through local presence based on individual customer needs. Together we have the people, products and knowledge to offer this better than anyone else.”
With a production of more than 1.55 million crossbred gilts and over 8 million doses of semen per year, Topigs Norsvin is one of the biggest swine genetics suppliers in the world. Each year more than 90 million slaughter pigs are produced with Topigs Norsvin genetics.
“TOPIGS and Norsvin is a perfect match,” added CEO Martin Bijl of Topigs Norsvin. “We are both R&D driven and have complimentary portfolios. TOPIGS brings robust, easy to manage lines providing the best total feed efficiency. Norsvin brings extremely productive, lean and efficient lines. Also the market position is complementary with TOPIGS’ global presence and Norsvin’s solid presence in Scandinavia, the U.S. and the Baltic region.”
Listen to the full press conference announcing TOPIGS Norsvin here: TOPIGS Norsvin Press Conference
2014 World Pork Expo photo album
