BiaVest, the Dublin-based food-focused private investment company, announced that it has acquired an 80% stake in German pasta company Riesa Nudeln.

Riesa Nudeln has annual revenues of €40m, employs 150 people and has annual production capacity of 25,000t of pasta using durum wheat sourced from the area around the company’s facilities in the Saxony region of Germany.

BiaVest, founded in 2021 by former Valeo CEO Hilliard Lombard and Java Republic founder David McKernan, already has a portfolio of Irish and UK food businesses including Nomadic, Offbeat Donuts and Nobó. This deal is the investors first foray into continental Europe.

'Track record of success'

Lombard said Riesa’s “track record of success is striking, as is its growth potential”, adding that there are exciting plans in place to expand and develop the business.

Among those plans is an investment which will lead to a doubling of production capacity to 50,000t per year.

André Freidler, Riesa Nudeln, said they had “found a strong capital partner with a great deal of expertise to drive the brand business forward” in BiaVest.

BiaVest did not reveal how much it had paid for the majority stake in the German company.