IPO for Godiva, Delacre and Verkade?

Turkish holding Yildiz has major plans for its candy division: it intends to spin it off into a separate company (Pladis) and bring it to the stock exchange. Yildiz not only owns chocolate brand Godiva, but also brands like Delacre, Verkade and Sultana.

Annual turnover surpasses 5 billion dollar

Pladis’ IPO will not take place anytime soon: Yildiz is looking at 2020 for an initial public offering of its candy division. Yildiz’ deputy chairman, Cem Karakas, will take charge of the IPO, which will take place on the London stock exchange. 

All of Pladis’ brands have a joint annual 5.2 billion dollar (4.6 billion euro) turnover, which puts it in third spot globally. Only Kellogg and Mondelez are larger candy companies.

Major plans for Godiva

The Turkish company also has lofty goals for Belgian chocolate brand Godiva, which already doubled its turnover in 7 years’ time, to 792 million euro (696 million euro). By 2019, it should have surpassed the 1 billion dollar turnover milestone (877 million euro). 

Expansion into new Asian markets, like China, South Korea, Thailand and the Middle East have helped Godiva achieve this strong growth, while it also considerably expanded its product range over the past few years.

In order to reach that 1 billion dollar milestone, it will also open new stores, like another 190 Chinese stores by 2019. This way, it hopes to keep Swiss Lindt & Sprüngli at bay, especially as that brand hopes to surpass Godiva’s Chinese turnover by 2020.