Dava Foods Bets on Kryddhuset for Ingredients Volume

DAVA Foods bought Swedish spice maker Kryddhuset i Ljung on 24 September 2026, adding a 22-person factory it says will lift ingredient volumes by more than 50 percent. The plant in Ljung sold 68.2 million kronor of blends, sauces and mills in 2025, about $7 million, and still posted a net loss. Humble Group sold the unit ten days after Anders Fredriksson sat down as chief executive.

The price was not disclosed. Kryddhuset’s managers and staff stay in place, and the factory on Industrivägen keeps running under a Danish egg group that wants its spice-blend line to jump in one stroke.

Dava Wants a 50 Percent Volume Jump

Group CEO Ivan Noes called the purchase another step in a plan to make DAVA Foods a leading Nordic supplier of food ingredients. The claim that matters on the shop floor is narrower. DAVA Foods said the deal will raise volumes in spice blends and ingredient solutions by more than 50 percent, not sales for the whole group.

That is a large lift from a small book. Kryddhuset’s 68.2 million kronor of 2025 sales sits inside a buyer that posted 1.73 billion kroner of group sales the same year, up 9 percent, with profit after tax of 26.4 million kroner. Eggs still carry that result. The ingredients slice is the part DAVA Foods is trying to fatten.

THE LJUNG BET IN FOUR FIGURES

• 2025 sales: Kryddhuset booked 68.2 million kronor at the Ljung plant.
• Staff who stay: The 22-person team and the current managers remain after the sale.
• Volume claim: DAVA Foods says spice-blend and ingredient volumes will rise by more than 50 percent.
• Norway share: About 10 percent of Kryddhuset’s sales already leave Sweden for Norway.

DAVA Foods said it expects gains in purchasing, production and product development, and better use of capacity at Ljung. It also picks up a customer list it does not already have, spanning grocery and foodservice, with branded goods and private label side by side. For a group whose public face is still a yellow egg carton, that Swedish list is the point of the cheque.

Ten Days After Humble’s New Chief Arrived

Fredriksson took the Humble Group job on 14 September 2026. Humble’s board had named him on 12 March 2026, with a start no later than that mid-September date, succeeding acting chief Noel Abdayem. He arrived from Löfbergs, the Nordic coffee group, and before that ran Norrmejerier. On the way in he said Humble would simplify structures and strengthen operations so the group could use its scale.

The spice factory was outside that focus. Fredriksson said production of spices does not sit among Humble’s core activities, and that DAVA Foods can take the business and its people forward. Humble had owned Kryddhuset since 30 April 2021, when it completed a bundle of food buys that also included confectionery and sports nutrition firms.

HOW THE PLANT CHANGED HANDS

1. 30 April 2021: Humble Group completes its purchase of Kryddhuset i Ljung AB and consolidates the company.
2. 12 March 2026: Humble’s board appoints Anders Fredriksson as chief executive, with a start no later than 14 September 2026.
3. 14 September 2026: Fredriksson takes the chair after leaving Löfbergs.
4. 24 September 2026: DAVA Foods, part of Danish Agro Group, buys Kryddhuset. The price stays private.

Ten days is a short interval between a new boss’s first Monday and a factory sale. It matches the script he set in March, and it matches Humble’s wider effort to put capital on fewer lines. Spices were never going to be the brand Humble takes to pharmacy shelves and licensed retail. DAVA Foods already packs flavour next to eggs, so the plant had somewhere to go.

What Comes Off the Line in Ljung?

Kryddhuset develops, makes and packs spice blends, flavour mixes and ingredient products for consumers and for the food industry. The site in Ljung handles both production and packing. Most sales stay in Sweden. About 10 percent go to Norway.

The public range is broader than a rack of pepper. The company’s own shop lists taco mixes, grill rubs, mill jars, refill pouches, baking aids and hot sauces, including habanero and sriracha sauces on its shop. A deal statement put barbecue seasonings, street-food concepts, baking products and selected Italian lines in the same portfolio as basic spices and salt.

WHAT THE LJUNG RANGE ACTUALLY PACKS

• Grill and rubs: World-grill three-packs, chipotle and honey-ginger rubs, and Himalayan salt grill mixes sit in tins and PET jars.
• Hot sauces: Red, green and yellow habanero bottles share the list with sriracha, including a super-hot chilli sauce.
• Mills and refills: Pepper mills, sea salt, Himalayan salt and four-pepper mixes are sold as grinders and as refill bags.
• Weeknight blends: Taco spice, fries seasoning, Italian salad mix and pizza herbs are the grocery-aisle staples.

That mix is why a Danish egg packer wanted the plant. Travellers who cook from a Swedish supermarket already know these jars: taco night, a mill by the stove, a grill rub for a balcony barbecue. Foodservice kitchens buy the same flavours in bulk. DAVA Foods is not inventing a spice brand. It is buying the line that already sits on those shelves, plus the people who blend it.

The 2025 Accounts Turned Negative

The volume story is easier to tell than the profit story. Swedish company accounts for Kryddhuset i Ljung AB show 2025 sales of 68.2 million kronor and a net loss of 1.525 million kronor. The profit margin was minus 3.5 percent, after plus 1.9 percent in 2024. Equity at year end was 5.320 million kronor against 28.807 million kronor of assets.

KRYDDHUSET 2025 AGAINST DAVA’S GROUP BOOK

DAVA Foods is therefore paying an undisclosed sum for a plant whose latest full year ran at a loss, in order to more than half-again the tonnes it puts through spice blends and ingredient solutions. Better buying and a fuller Ljung line could close that gap. They could also leave a small Swedish factory as a cost inside a group that still makes its money on eggs. The accounts do not settle which way that goes. They only show why the 50 percent volume claim is a wager, not a book already earned.

An Egg Group With a Hungry Ingredients Arm

DAVA Foods is a Nordic food company based in Hadsund, Denmark, and a wholly owned unit of Danish Agro Group. The group around 2 billion eggs a year through packing sites and product plants in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Estonia. A February 2025 note from Danish Agro already called it Scandinavia’s largest egg supplier.

The spice buy sits on work DAVA Foods started earlier this decade, when it folded Danish plant and spice brands into an ingredients arm. That unit sells seeds, legumes, oils, spices and dry mixes. Eggs still pay the bills. The 2025 group profit came while the plant-based side had yet to earn its keep, which is why a Swedish factory that can fill spice jars for grocery and kitchens is useful if the line actually runs full.

The acquisition of Kryddhuset is another important step in our strategy to expand Dava Foods’ position as a leading supplier of food ingredients in the Nordic region.

Ivan Noes, Group CEO, DAVA Foods, 24 September 2026 statement

Noes also said the group wants to develop Kryddhuset with its other activities. In practice that means Ljung’s blends can travel through a Nordic sales net that already talks to the same retailers who buy DAVA eggs. It also means a 22-person spice house now shares a parent with packing plants whose daily volume is counted in eggs by the billion, not jars by the thousand.

Swedish Grocery Customers Get a Danish Parent

Kryddhuset CEO Pablo Labardi said joining DAVA Foods feels like a natural and safe next step, with a larger Nordic network and room to keep building on what the company already does with customers and staff. For Swedish grocers and kitchens, the jar on the shelf does not change this week. The owner behind the invoice does.

Private-label spice contracts are sticky once a packer is in a retailer’s planogram. They also move when a new owner changes price, spec or lead time. DAVA Foods said the customer base is complementary, which is another way of saying Ljung sells to people Hadsund did not already reach. If the more than 50 percent volume lift is real, some of it has to come from running more of those Swedish orders through a busier plant, not from reprinting a Danish catalogue.

Humble is out. Fredriksson has his first factory disposal on the board, ten days into the job, and a spice P&L that went negative in 2025 is no longer his. DAVA Foods has the mill, the sauces, the 22 people and a volume target that is large relative to the books it just bought. The plant at Industrivägen 3, 524 41 Ljung, is where that bet now has to be packed.

Frequently Asked Questions

When Was Kryddhuset i Ljung Founded?

The company was registered on 20 February 1991 as Kryddhuset i Ljung Aktiebolag, organisation number 556416-9786, and PitchBook lists a 1990 founding year. Humble Group later completed its purchase of the shares on 30 April 2021, so the plant had just over five years under Humble before the 24 September 2026 sale to DAVA Foods.

Who Owns Dava Foods?

DAVA Foods is owned by Danish Agro Group, a farmer-owned agricultural group that in 2024 employed 5,500 people and recorded 45.5 billion kroner of sales. DAVA Foods itself is organised as seven companies plus a sales office, with headquarters in Hadsund, Denmark, and plants across the Nordic countries and Estonia.

What Other Names Does Kryddhuset Trade Under?

Swedish company filings list two extra business names besides Kryddhuset i Ljung: Design food World, used for food and delicacy sales, and Smakkompaniet i Ljung, used for agency, trade and manufacturing in food. Share capital is 375,000 kronor. The registered office is Industrivägen 3, 524 41 Ljung, in Herrljunga municipality in Västra Götaland.

Is Humble Group a Listed Company?

Humble Group AB is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm Mid Cap under the ticker HUMBLE and is based at Ingmar Bergmans Gata 2 in Stockholm. It describes itself as an FMCG group that owns brands, distribution and some production, and it is obliged to publish inside information under the EU Market Abuse Regulation, which is how the March 2026 chief-executive change was released.