Cargill is boosting its gourmet chocolate offering by acquiring Smet, a Belgium-based supplier of chocolate and sweets decorations to the food service and confectionery markets.

“We will broaden our product portfolio and services to artisans and chocolatiers, bakery, hospitality businesses and food service industries,” says Inge Demeyere, Managing Director of Cargill’s chocolate activities in Europe.

“Smet enjoys great market recognition. As their brand joins Cargill’s existing brand portfolio, their unique entrepreneurial capabilities will be leveraged to allow for a dedicated focus on gourmet customers.”

The combined business aims to provide significant opportunities to accelerate growth in the gourmet segment.

Cargill said that customers will benefit from “increased intimacy” and “high speed-to-market” with new decoration technology, enhanced production capabilities and a wide-ranging product portfolio.

Smet has a global distribution network for gourmet products, two fully-owned manufacturing sites in Belgium and Poland, and almost 90 employees.

Johan Smet, CEO of Smet, said: “Cargill provides us with a unique opportunity to serve our customers with a globally integrated cocoa and chocolate supply chain, a renowned sustainability approach and deep chocolate expertise.”

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2019.