Morato Buys Jaus Bakery as Selling Families Stay On

Morato Group has taken full control of Germany’s Jaus Bakery and Italian distributor CEA Italia, lifting combined sales above more than €500 million ($559 million). The purchase, announced on October 7, 2026, was structured as a share exchange and a capital increase, and the selling Pitticco and Zamboni families are staying as owners and as operators.

Aliante Partners, the private-equity firm that held a 68.6% stake in parent Morato Pane before the recapitalisation, has given up majority control. Every shareholder in the enlarged group is now a minority, including a new international partner that subscribed to the capital increase.

Selling Families Keep a Stake and Take the Operating Jobs

Morato, the Vicenza baker behind the Morato, Roberto, Nutrifree and Rusticana brands, bought 100% of both targets. Jaus and CEA had been a single Italian-German group under the Zamboni and Pitticco families, with German ovens feeding an Italian sales book. Those families did not cash out. They rolled equity into Morato Group and took two of the operating seats that decide what gets baked and how it moves.

Sergio Pitticco will run the business area, coordinating sales, marketing and research and development. Fabio Zamboni will run supply chain, covering procurement, planning and logistics. Stefano Maza remains chairman and chief executive, and Marco Cersosimo stays as chief financial officer. German company filings already listed Pitticco as a managing director of Jaus Bakery from March 2026, months before Morato announced the close.

WHO RUNS WHAT AFTER CLOSE

• Stefano Maza: Stays as chairman and chief executive of Morato Group.
• Sergio Pitticco: Leads sales, marketing and research and development across the group.
• Fabio Zamboni: Leads procurement, planning and logistics as head of supply chain.
• Marco Cersosimo: Continues as chief financial officer.
• Historic families: The Morato and Bertoncello families remain on the register as minorities.

Aliante Equity 3 and Aliante Partners, led by Paolo Righetto and Niccolò Fischer, had held the majority and are now minorities beside those names. A new international strategic partner, described in deal files as a family office, came in through the capital increase. Exact post-deal percentages were not published with the statement.

Two German Plants and a 60-Year Brand

The industrial prize is two German factories, in Weißenhorn in Bavaria and Dinklage in Lower Saxony, plus about 310 staff. Those sites take Morato to 19 plants in Italy, Spain, France and Germany, with 54 lines on more than 130,000 square metres of factory floor and annual capacity of 180,000 tonnes. Group headcount is now more than 1,800.

Jaus is not a start-up bolt-on. Albert and Erwin Jaus started baking in Bad Cannstatt in 1933, and the firm reached Weißenhorn in 1962 when it took over the Mayer bakery. By 1973, after the move to Daimlerstraße 18-20, daily output had passed 50 tons and the range had grown to about 120 items. The company’s own history still lists breads, burgers, hot-dog buns and toast as the core.

JAUS BAKERY FROM CANNSTATT TO MORATO

1. 1933: Albert and Erwin Jaus begin baking in a former consumer bakery in Bad Cannstatt.
2. 1962: The firm takes over the Mayer bakery and opens in Weißenhorn.
3. 1973: Production moves to Daimlerstraße and daily output exceeds 50 tons.
4. 1988-2008: Jaus passes through Wilhelm Weber, the Wendeln Group, Kamps and Lieken.
5. 2016: Jaus Bakery GmbH splits from Lieken and operates independently again.
6. October 7, 2026: Morato Group takes 100% of Jaus Bakery and CEA Italia.

That path matters because this is the second time in a decade the Weißenhorn ovens have changed owners after a long stretch inside larger German bakers. Shoppers who buy a Jaus bun or a Daily Bread loaf will still see those names. The change sits in the share register and in who books the flour.

How Morato Rolled Up 15 Bakeries in Eight Years

Maza called the German step a decisive move in a growth path built on plant spending, digital tools and purchases. Over the last eight years, with Aliante’s backing, Morato has completed 15 acquisitions. Company figures put average annual sales growth above 30% across that stretch. Deal files put 2025 sales at about €400 million before Jaus and CEA were folded in.

The first shop opened in Vicenza in 1970, and the group is still based in Altavilla Vicentina. Aliante first invested in 2006. Under Maza the firm added Italian brands, Spanish capacity, a French site bought from Barilla in Gauchy in 2023, and gluten-free specialists, including a 51% stake in Massimo Zero in 2024 and NT Group in 2022.

THE PURCHASES THAT BUILT THE PERIMETER

Aliante partners’ own account of the build-up describes a seven-year run from €60 million of sales to almost €400 million, with export rising from 2% of the book in 2016 to about half, and products sold in more than 40 countries. Righetto, Fischer and Paolo Cistaro, chief executive of Aliante Partners Italia, wrote that an earlier sale would have paid a lower multiple, and that they wanted a European industrial baker rather than a quick exit. Houlihan Lokey advised on acquisition financing, and an international private-debt fund also lent on the Jaus close.

Who Owns Morato Group After the Deal?

On paper Morato Group now holds 100% of the operating companies, including the two German plants and CEA Italia in Egna, in the province of Bolzano. Under that holding company the register is a cluster of minorities: Aliante Equity 3 and Aliante Partners, the Morato and Bertoncello families, the Pitticco and Zamboni families, managers including Maza, and the new international partner.

That is a different machine from the 68.6% Aliante stake in Morato Pane that sat on the register before this recapitalisation. The firm still supplies the method, the lean-plant playbook and the deal team, and Aliante Partners’ consumer and food brief still lists long-life bread among the sectors it backs. It no longer holds the majority that private-equity buyouts usually keep until exit.

Linklaters advised Aliante Equity 3 and Morato on the new governance. EY Advisory handled appraisals tied to the capital increase in Morato Pane. The sellers were advised by Houlihan Lokey’s M&A team. None of those firms disclosed a price, and Morato’s statement did not either.

Buns, Toast and the Daily Bread Brand

Jaus is known in Europe for hamburger buns and hot-dog buns. Daily Bread brings rustic loaves and baguettes, a line on which Morato now claims a leading position in Italy and a strong one in Europe. Morato said the combination also adds capacity in sandwich bread and toast, sitting beside its existing sandwich loaves, crustless bread, bruschetta bread and buns.

CEA Italia is the commercial hinge. Jaus bakes in Germany; CEA sells that volume in Italy. Folding both into one group lets Morato run DACH plants against northern retail briefs while pushing Italian brands through a sales team that already knows those customers. Pitticco’s brief now covers the whole group’s sales book, not only the South Tyrol distributor.

Brand names on pack are not being retired. Morato, Roberto, Nutrifree, Rusticana, Daily Bread and Jaus will share one industrial network. For a discounter or a burger chain, the change is which invoicing entity runs the line, not whether the bun still carries the old mark.

The Industrial Share of Europe’s Bakery Aisle

The European Association of Industrial Bakers puts total bakery consumption in Europe at about 42 million tonnes, worth around €158 billion. About 70% of Europe’s bakery output already comes from industrial plants, and the association ranks bakery as the third-largest food production sector after meat and dairy. Italy, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and Poland are the six largest producing countries.

EUROPE’S BAKERY AISLE, AIBI FIGURES

• Consumption volume: About 42 million tonnes of bakery products a year in Europe.
• Market value: Around €158 billion at the association’s last snapshot.
• Industrial share: About 70% of that volume is baked in plants, not craft shops.
• Morato’s slice: 180,000 tonnes of stated annual capacity after the Jaus close.

A 180,000-tonne baker is still a mid-tier plant network on that map, which is the point of the roll-up. Packed long-life bread, bake-off and food-service buns are the channels where a group with 54 lines in four countries can bid for contracts that a single regional bakery cannot fill. Germany remains one of the six largest producing countries, so owning Weißenhorn and Dinklage is a way to quote into that volume without hauling every bun from the Veneto.

Maza Sets a €600 Million Target on the New Perimeter

The next published number is not another plant count. Maza set a three-year plan target of more than €600 million of sales on the new perimeter, €100 million above the post-deal base of more than €500 million. In August 2025 Morato had already raised a €110 million senior loan, earmarked to refinance existing debt and to support further purchases.

The integration with CEA Italia and Jaus Bakery represents a decisive step in the Morato Group’s growth journey, built up over the years through industrial investment, innovation, digitalisation and external growth. Over the last eight years, with the support of Aliante Partners, we have completed 15 strategic acquisitions. The investments made now enable us to unlock new business opportunities and further improve industrial efficiency, setting ourselves the ambitious target of achieving a turnover of over 600 million euros over the course of the three-year plan.

Stefano Maza, Chairman and CEO, Morato Group

Aliante’s partners had already told Italian private-capital readers that the last foreign purchase was the remaining piece after a final production line due by the end of 2025. Jaus is that piece. Whether the three-year plan then requires still more factories is a question the new minorities, including the families who just rolled their German ovens into the register, will answer together.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did Aliante Partners first invest in Morato?

Aliante first invested in 2006, initially through a vehicle called Progetto Pane in which the founding family kept a majority, Aliante took a quarter and Nem Imprese held the rest; Aliante later raised its stake, including to 55% in 2012, before the 68.6% holding in Morato Pane that sat on the register ahead of the Jaus recapitalisation.

What did CEA Italia earn in 2025?

Filings compiled by data firm Leanus show CEA Italia had sales of €52.3 million in 2025, EBITDA of €3.6 million and net cash of €5.9 million at year end, which is the Italian distribution arm Morato has now put on the same register as the German baker it sells.

Is Morato Pane a benefit company?

Morato Pane Spa has been converted into a Società Benefit, the Italian legal form that writes a social and environmental purpose into the articles alongside profit, a change the group tied to its wider industrial plan rather than to the Jaus close itself.

How many gluten-free plants does Morato run?

The group counts four plants dedicated to gluten-free production, a footprint built through NT Group in 2022 and the 51% purchase of Massimo Zero in 2024, which added pasta, biscuits and breadcrumbs to a free-from range that now sits beside Jaus wheat buns rather than replacing them.

Maza’s three-year clock now runs on a group that bakes in four countries and books more than €500 million of sales, with the families who built Jaus writing the orders and the lorry plans. The price of that German capacity was a share of Morato itself.