Danish Crown takes next step in major transformation

Danish Crown is currently undergoing a comprehensive transformation aimed at strengthening the company’s position in the global food market.

Over the past year, the Group has improved its competitiveness and laid the foundation for a new ownership model. Danish Crown is now entering the next phase of the transformation and moving away from its previous conglomerate structure. This will be done through a new organisational structure, which is an important element in the transformation of Danish Crown.

“We need to normalise Danish Crown fundamentally, so we resemble other international companies in our industry. Today, our business units largely operate as independent companies. We are changing that by bringing our businesses closer together. We need to operate as one fully integrated group across business areas and across countries,” says Group CEO Niels Ulrich Duedahl.

The transition to the new organisational model is expected to generate efficiency improvements of approximately DKK 500 million over the next two to three years. Specifically, Danish Crown will consolidate a number of central group functions that are currently largely embedded in the individual business units.

A key element of the new model is to create a simpler organisation with fewer management layers, broader and more clearly defined leadership roles, and more direct reports under each individual manager.

The new organisational structure will lead to a reduction of around 800 positions across Danish Crown’s international organisation over the next two to three years. The restructuring will affect managers and white-collar employees as central group functions are consolidated across business units.

“By consolidating functions at group level, we can leverage our scale better, work more consistently across the organisation and create a more efficient operation. Instead of doing things differently depending on which country you are based in, we need shared standards, systems, and targets. Over the next two to three years, this means fewer management layers and fewer employees,” says Niels Ulrich Duedahl.

Today, Danish Crown consists of eight business units: Industry, Foods, Beef, UK, KLS, Sokolow, ESS-FOOD and DAT-Schaub. Workforce adjustments will take place gradually across countries and business units, with local consultation processes expected to begin in early June.

“At Danish Crown we have improved our competitiveness, but we still have significant untapped potential that we believe we can realise. The competition in the global food market is intense, and our owners are facing challenging times due to the quotation level. This reinforces the need to continue our transformation to improve our competitiveness and the quotation to our owners. This is an important step in that journey,” says Niels Ulrich Duedahl.