About 900 people work across BHJ’s European sites and the additional roles would be created in its European innovations arm as a result of the merger, said Jacobsen.
However, he was unable to specify how many of those jobs would be created in the UK.
Essentia comprises the 40 year-old Denmark-headquartered protein firm BHJ, which has operations in the UK, and US-based Proliant Meat Ingredients and Proliant Health firms.
The three firms have been owned by the US-based Laurisden Group, which manufactures proteins for the food industry, for the past 10 years.
‘Benefit from synergy’
“It [the merger] means we are now organised into one company and we can benefit from the synergy by joining up our product portfolios and best practices,” Jacobsen told FoodManufacture.co.uk.
No job losses had occurred as a result of the merger and there were currently no plans to condense any operations, Jacobsen said.
Significant amounts of investment would be made across the newly-formed company’s sites, including in the UK, he added.
Although Jacobsen declined to give an exact investment figure, there were plans to increase product capacity at a number of sites.
‘Investing across the business’
“We’re investing across the business to increase capacity to make room for new products and we will be increasing the size of some of our sites to do that,” he added.
The company had just entered the fish protein category, said Jacobsen, which was an example of its plans to develop new products.
“We’ve gone into it because fish protein is an interesting area. Right now we’re starting with fish stocks and we plan to build on that in the future with more new products,” he said.
Of the merger Chris Snyder, Essentia president and ceo, said: “Our strategy is to leverage Essentia’s combined expertise and innovation. Our mission is to create and deliver value to customers and stakeholders through novel protein solutions.”