Euricom agrees takeover of German rice and pulse processor Müller’s Mühle

Euricom has signed binding agreements to acquire German rice and pulse processor Müller's Mühle from GoodMills Deutschland, adding a Gelsenkirchen manufacturing business with an established facility for legume-based proteins and starch flours.

The Italian food group intends to acquire all the shares in Müller's Mühle, subject to regulatory approvals. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2026, with the businesses continuing to operate independently until then. Neither the purchase price nor a budget for subsequent plant investment has been disclosed.

Alongside its consumer rice and pulse brands, Müller's Mühle operates a facility commissioned in 2021 to manufacture legume-derived proteins and starch flours for industrial food applications. The plant gives Euricom an additional route into business-to-business ingredients, extending the capabilities associated with rice processing and retail packing. Euricom says it intends to develop the Gelsenkirchen site, retain the established team and build on the German brand's position, although the announcement specifies no new production line or timetable for capital expenditure.

Based in Italy's Lomellina rice region, Euricom supplies branded and private-label rice, cereal products and food ingredients across several European markets. Its portfolio includes Curtiriso and Flora in Italy, Sonko in Poland and Ebly in France. The proposed acquisition would introduce an established German processing and sales base, supported by relationships with supermarkets, foodservice customers and food manufacturers.

GoodMills describes Müller's Mühle as a major processor of peas, beans and lentils in northern Europe, alongside its rice refinement activities. The Gelsenkirchen operation therefore handles raw materials requiring different preparation and quality controls, rather than operating solely as a branded rice packing facility. Crop cleanliness, grading and the separation of different materials are central to maintaining the specifications expected of both consumer products and further-processed ingredients.

Processing whole pulses into functional ingredients introduces additional specifications beyond those required for packed dried goods. Cleaning and milling have to provide a consistent flour particle size, while downstream protein or starch products must satisfy composition and handling requirements in customers' recipes. Food manufacturers using legume ingredients in snacks, baked goods or plant-based foods will assess factors such as hydration, texture, protein content and behaviour during heating. Those are established formulation considerations, not newly reported performance specifications for the acquired plant.

Rice preparation introduces a different set of constraints, including control of broken grains, foreign material and customer-specific grading. Maintaining separate product identities becomes important where a site handles several crop types and both consumer and industrial orders. Batch records, storage segregation and testing support the traceability of agricultural inputs as they pass through cleaning, processing and packing.

Müller's Mühle already supplied ingredient customers under GoodMills ownership. In 2022, the group brought sales and application work for its legume-flour portfolio into GoodMills Innovation, linking products more directly with food development activities. The latest agreement concerns acquisition of the Müller's Mühle company; it does not establish that all separately organised GoodMills Innovation operations, staff or intellectual property will transfer.

Any subsequent combination of customer portfolios and production planning will depend on the terms of completion and the way the businesses organise their facilities. Euricom has indicated that it wants to expand the German operation, but has not announced product transfers, procurement consolidation or changes to line utilisation. Nor has it provided a forecast for output from the legume-ingredient facility following the transaction.

Existing certifications and customer approvals will remain operational considerations through any ownership change. GoodMills lists IFS Food and energy-management certification for the Gelsenkirchen business. These indicate that formal management systems are in place, but the scope and validity of any specific certification must be checked independently when assessing future production changes. New ownership does not automatically change a factory's approved processes or its customers' product specifications.

Germany provides an important adjacent market for Euricom's existing European brands and agricultural sourcing activities. Supplying industrial ingredients brings different service requirements from distributing packaged rice: manufacturers may need consistent composition, technical documentation and application support over repeated production batches. The acquired site already has experience in that market, reducing the need to create every processing and customer-facing function from the outset.

The agreed purchase gives Euricom a substantial German processing platform, including a legume-ingredient facility that has been operating since 2021. Regulatory clearance and closing are the immediate outstanding steps. Decisions on additional equipment, production allocation and investment will follow separately, rather than forming part of the confirmed October transaction.