When EAC’s board of directors got together this Monday and decided to accept the offer of 9 billion DKK from Duth-owned Royal Numico, it marked the beginning of the end for one of the most influencial players in Danish trade history. Although EAC has spent the last decade getting over some extremely severe financial hangovers in the mid-1990s, the company can also look back on a glorious history, which peaked in the 1970s when EAC employed over 30,000 people and were well-ahead of rivals AP Moller.
Will be Put to Bed Properly
With the sale of EAC Nutrition to Royal Numico, EAC will also be saying goodbye to their current CEO, the British Mark Wilson who will continue in charge of the sold-off company. To replace him, EAC has once again selected a Danish leader, Mr. Niels Henrik Jensen. He will thus be the person to lead the former trade-giant to its grave over the coming years after more than 100 years of operations.
“We will put EAC to bed properly. Think about how it could have been done earlier. That wouldn’t have been fun,” Mr. Jensen says, referring to the company’s life-threatening financial woes in the 1980s and 1990s.
Closing the Headquarters in Singapore
For the last 7 years, EAC has had their headquarters based in Singapore. But with the historic decision to close down the operations over the coming years – no specific time frame has been given – the board as agreed to move the headquarters back to Copenhagen as of spring next year.
After the sale of EAC Nutrition, the EAC consists of EAC Moving & Relocation Services and EAC Industrial Ingredients, as well as the South American meat-corporation, EAC Foods. All these three have been up for sale for a while already, so that EAC could focus on the Nutrition company. However, with the Nutrition company being sold, the EAC will instead focus on gradually terminating the remaining operations. Thus, it will be the final chapter of the story that began when the working class son from Nakskov in Denmark went to Thailand and created one of Denmark’s largest companies – bringing him into the royal courts of both Thailand and Denmark.
You can read more about the East Asiatic Company at the company’s website: www.eac.dk
