Germany: 4 largest pig slaughter companies make it to a market share of more than 60 percent

The pigs-mature-for-slaughter market still is highly concentrated in Germany. The Top-10 companies (Tönnies, Vion, Westfleisch, Danish Crown, Vogler, Böseler Goldschmaus, Müller Gruppe, BMR Schlachthof, Tummel and Gausepohl) are almost constantly carrying out 75 % of all pig slaughters.

Out of the ten largest pig slaughter companies, the Top 4 alone make it to a market share of more than 60 percent. 15 percent of the market are covered by the six following companies.

ISN - TOP 10 pig slaughterers 2011

Top 4 in detail:

• Toennies continues to be top of the class, with about 15.4 million pigs slaughtered last year. So in 2011, the biggest german slaughter company still has been clearly expanding, increasing their number of slaughters by 1.2 million pigs.
• In 2011, the distance between VION and the No. 1 grew again. Vion lost a big part of their market share. According to ISN estimations, Vion slaughtered less than 10 million pigs last year in Germany.
• Westfleisch were able to increase their number of slaughters. Growth to up to 7.16 million pigs was made possible in particular by increased export rates. Similar to the Toennies figures, Westfleisch’s export share is around 50 %. Growth proved to be particularly strong in the Asian markets such as Hongkong, China and South Korea.
• At the beginning of 2011, the D&S Fleisch slaughter company was taken over by the Danish group of companies Danish Crown. Over the past year, about 3.3 million pigs were slaughtered, which means 8 % less than in 2010.

Ranks 5 To 10

• Vogler slaughtered 1.94 million pigs in total.
• With 1.5 million slaughters in 2011, Boeseler Goldschmaus (Garrel) also remained on the previous-year level.
• As a result of incrased slaughter capacities at Ulm, the Mueller Group had 1.44 million pigs slaughtered in 2011, which was about 13 % more slaughters than in 2010.
• An increase of about 5 % was reported by the BMR slaughter company, where 1.44 million pigs were slaughtered in 2011.
• The fact that Tummel, a company from Westphalian Schoeppingen, still is found in the official statistics must be attributed to the cartel office’s intervention. The cartel office had interdicted the taking over of Tummel by Toennies at the end of 2011. At the Tummel premises, a steady number of 1.35 million pigs was slaughtered last year.
• Gausepohl (Dissen) have been on a consolidation course last year, going down in the ranking list by a few ranks. By their own account, Gausepohl slaughtered 1.3 million pigs in 2011 (- 2.6 %). This slight decrease was, amongst other issues, attributed to the closing down of the Chemnitz premises.

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