Hubert Birch Jr.: “One or two acquisitions by 2026”

Conversations with Hubert Birch Jr. are always culinary circles. The acquisition of Italian company Giacomazzi Food Tech completed this year – including the acquisition of the production site in Parma – is not just an announcement from an expansion perspective, as it aims to bring additional growth to the dairy and cheese manufacturer Bludenz.

And as the connoisseur knows, the worlds of specialty grow together here: “Our expertise in the field of semi-hard and hard cheeses is being extended to the field of pasta filata,” says Bertsch Jr.

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It is the first acquisition of this kind by Vorarlberg. And it shouldn’t be the last. “One or two more acquisitions are planned for 2025 or 2026,” says the businessman, who along with his two sisters – one of whom works in marketing at the holding company and the other studies law – are representatives of the fourth generation of the family.

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The handover of operational management from his father to him in 2020 went smoothly, says the trained mechanical engineer and business economist who specializes in change management.

The first big decision he made was essentially a comeback campaign: production was moved from Linz-Horsching back to Vorarlberg, and today production takes place near Bludenz, in Praz.