WINTERGERST advises Mölkerei Rücker on sale to MEGGLE Holding SE
The Rücker family is handing over its dairy operations, consisting of Rücker GmbH in Aurich and Ostsee-Molkerei Wismar, to MEGGLE Holding SE, based in Wasserburg am Inn. This move should ensure that the future of the economically-sound family-owned company remains secure. WINTERGERST provided comprehensive support and advice with all aspects of the sales process. The takeover creates one of the largest privately-owned dairy operations in Germany.
Rücker is an economically successful company and important employer at its two facilities in Aurich and Wismar. To ensure that this remains so in future, the shareholders, Klaus and Insa Rücker, decided, after undertaking an extensive strategy definition process and careful deliberation, to sell their company in order to fulfill their duty as prudent business people. They commissioned WINTERGERST Societät für Unternehmerberatung, based in Stuttgart, to search for a suitable partner.
WINTERGERST analyzed the European market and held talks with numerous dairy operations and other producers of foodstuffs. It was important for the shareholders of Rücker to find a partner that shared the values of its 135-year-old dairy operation and could strengthen the position of its operations on the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts. Moreover, its product portfolio should be a good fit to that of Rücker.
WINTERGERST finally found such a strong partner in MEGGLE Holding SE. This traditional company founded in 1887 has a workforce of 2,600 employees and generates revenue of approximately EUR 1.4 billion which puts it on an extraordinarily solid financial footing. The acquisition of the two operations, Rücker GmbH in Aurich and Ostsee-Molkerei GmbH in Wismar, with over 600 employees and revenue of approximately EUR 500 million will create one of the largest privately-owned dairy operations in Germany. The deal was signed on 3 September 2025 and is expected to be closed before the end of the year. The antitrust office is currently reviewing the acquisition.
Rücker counts among the largest privately-owned producers of cheese in Northern Germany and is known for its specialty cheeses. It is considered a quality leader for fresh cheeses (white cheese). With this acquisition, MEGGLE is continuing along its growth trajectory and is expanding its cheese segment, a division that has taken on a strategically significant role since the acquisition of what is now MEGGLE Cheese GmbH in the year 2021.
„Together with WINTERGERST, we have found in MEGGLE a partner that is both a long-established family-owned company sharing similar values to our own, and one where strategy and the product portfolio complement each other well. We are confident that our company has found a good home. We are very happy that Volker Wintergerst was on hand to provide such professional assistance to us during such a radical step, one that was not so easy for us to takey.”
Klaus Rücker
Managing Shareholder, the fourth generation of the family to run the Rücker dairy operation
„The acquisition of the Rücker companies is another major milestone for us. With Rücker we are gaining a very healthy operation that not only looks back on an impressive history but also possesses enormous expertise and innovative strengths in cheese and dairy processing. Together we can bundle our competencies, make investments and create the foundation for further growth.”
Matthias Oettel
CEO of MEGGLE Holding SE
“We held talks with many major producers of foodstuffs and examined them closely to see if they were a potential match for Rücker, as a family-owned company. That MEGGLE and Rücker are such a good fit to each other pleases us immensely. Their production capacities and expertise will now be bundled which makes the operation even more efficient. For the milk suppliers, industrial partners and trading partners, the business combination creates a stable partner with a broad product portfolio. In the course of this extensive project, we were able to contribute our experience in corporate acquisitions, resolving succession issues and developing future planning scenarios, as well as our industry competence in the food sector,” explains Volker Wintergerst, Managing Partner at Wintergerst Societät für Unternehmerberatung.
The WINTERGERST project team comprised Volker Wintergerst, Dr. Florian Müller, Lars Gairing, Nico Weber, Nikola Wohlhaupter and Niklas Reichert.
Veit Mathauer
Media contact
Volker Wintergerst
Contact for readers
Volker Wintergerst has more than 20 years of experience in the consulting sector. After five years as the audit manager of audits of both separate and consolidated financial statements of large middle-market groups of companies and as a project leader in corporate finance, he spent ten years as a managing partner of the consulting arm of the Ebner Stolz Group.