History
The company originated in 1934, when the Noordbrabantse Christelijke Boerenbond (NCB), now known as ZLTO, founded the company Destructor NCB for processing animal carcasses of the farmers of the NCB.[6]
In the 1980s, the company expanded via takeovers. In the 1990s, it entered the market for value-added products, mainly gelatin. It was renamed to Sobel N.V.[6]
In 2002, ZLTO decided to enter the meat industry.[6][7] Therefore, the ZTLO additionally founded the Bestmeat Company N.V. and brought it together with Sobel into the new holding company Best Agrifund N.V.[8][9]
The first takeover in the meat industry was the leading German meat company Moksel in early 2003.[10][8] Following, the company took over the leading Dutch meat company Dumeco in mid-2003,[11] and Norddeutsche Fleischzentrale (NFZ, Nordfleisch) in the end of 2003.[12] In 2004, Hendrix Meat was bought from Nutreco Holding N.V.[13] and in 2005 the German company Südfleisch was taken over.[14]
In 2004, the holding company was renamed from Best Agrifund N.V. to Sovion N.V.[7] In July 2006, the company was again renamed from Sovion to VION Food Group. The sales of Vion grewing from mere €760 million in 2002 to more than €7 billion euro in 2007.[15]
In 2008, Vion acquired the lamb and poultry company Grampian Country Food Group Ltd based in Scotland for more than €400 million and, in 2010, the Dutch cattle slaughtering company Weyl Beef.[7][6]
In 2012, Vion sold her British pork operation to the 2 Sisters Food Group to focus on their Dutch and German operations.[16][17] In 2019 it announced to close the factory in Valkenswaard and redistribute staff and products to other factories in Netherland and Germany.[18]
