People at meeting table

Our strategy

Marel is a growth company. For the period 2017-2026 Marel has set a target of 12% average annual increase in revenues, through both organic growth and acquisitions. Our growth plan involves capitalizing on our strong innovation investment to drive expansion and market penetration. We will also focus on strategic partnerships and acquisitions to fill gaps in the value chain, and to augment our full-line product offering.

Leading global provider

Marel is a leading global provider of advanced food processing equipment, systems, software and services.

Marel's strategic objective is to be a full-line provider to the poultry, meat and fish industries. Our focus is to put our advanced, automated systems and solutions to work at every step of the production process and to cover the relevant geographical areas in our industries. Strong organic growth and strategic acquisitions have helped make Marel a leader in its field.

Our product line includes standalone equipment, individual systems and full production lines, all controlled and integrated with Innova, our overarching software solution. This offers our customers process control, real-time traceability and monitoring of throughput and yield that is hard to replicate. 

Seamless flow and integration between different applications result in higher overall efficiency and improved yield. Marel has thus become a one-stop shop for customers’ needs for equipment, software and service.

In line with our strategy, we have actively reinforced our value chain in recent years. Strong cash flow has made it possible to support organic growth actively through innovation, advancing our manufacturing facilities and updating our IT platform across geographies. It has also allowed Marel to undertake strategic acquisitions without issuing new shares without issuing new shares or taking out new loans for that purpose. We will continue to fill the remaining application gaps in our value chain through innovation, organic growth, strategic partnerships and acquisitions.

Strategic aim for full-line offering across poultry, meat and fish

Marel Processing Stage Coverage Transparent

Investing in growth

Marel is fully committed to meeting its target of 12% average annual increase in revenues through a balanced mix of organic and acquired growth. We seek to stimulate and drive future organic growth through continued investment in innovation and acquisitions, coupled with strategic partnerships and digitalization.


Organic growth

The market for food processing solutions, software and services for the three key proteins, poultry, meat, and fish, is expected to grow by 4-6% in the long-term. We believe the market growth will be at a level of 6-8% in the medium-term (2021-2026) due to catch-up effect from the past five years and a very strong tailwind in the market today accelerated by the pandemic.

With Marel’s portfolio of solutions and services, we are uniquely positioned to curb and support the global macro-trends driving the demands from our customers—and their customers. The growth drivers in Marel’s addressable market include continued focus on automation to combat labor shortages and increased costs, demand for flexibility to match changing consumer preferences with different products, and increased focus on sustainability where food safety, traceability, and the efficient use of resources are becoming key priorities. Marel’s three strategic growth pillars: customer focus, best-in-class products and technology, and people and culture, address these drivers.

Acquired growth

Acquisitions enhance our key strategic pillars and drive organic growth. Through acquisitions we can obtain better market reach and customer engagement and thus improve customer focus. Furthermore, as we strengthen our line offering and high-quality products, the transfer of technology and expertise across the key protein industries benefits product development across all three. Finally, with a shared vision and strategy we can enrich our people and culture.

We are committed to achieving our targeted average annual revenue growth of 5-7% through acquisitions in the period 2017-2026. Acquired growth is not expected to be linear but rather based on opportunities and economic fluctuations. To capture the full value of acquired companies, we’ve continued to professionalize our integration capabilities to tap into the strength of the combined entity

Strategic partnerships

Strategic partnerships allow us to close application gaps in the value chain, increase our competitive advantage, and accelerate new development and speed to market. To ensure value creation through partnerships, we work with technical leaders, setting clear objectives for exchange of value that are beneficial for both parties. A great example of this is the strategic partnership with TOMRA and the development of Marel Spectra, a true game-changer in foreign material detection. This revolutionary solution will meet our customers’ challenges head-on to deliver contamination-free, safe, and sustainable food.

As we increase focus and investment in digitalization, we form strategic partnerships with software companies that deliver groundbreaking solutions. This will accelerate our digital journey and deliver value to our customers. Our recent partnership with SafetyChain Software will provide customers with the industry’s first fully integrated food safety and quality assurance solution for protein manufacturing that includes software for food safety, quality management, and supplier management. Together, SafetyChain and our Innova Food Processing Software will provide the best-in-class solution, with everything our customers need for full production control.

Proven track record in acquired growth

Marel Acquisitions

You may also be interested in

Login to get full access

Enter password to continue

Wrong password