PRESS: Unilever and Kraft Heinz held talks on merger of food brands

Unilever PLC and Kraft Heinz Co in recent months discussed the possible merger of their food brands, the Financial Times reported late Wednesday.

The talks, which have now ended, were about a merger of Unilever’s food business with Kraft Heinz’s condiments division, the newspaper said, citing ‘people familiar with the talks’.

Such a combined food company would be worth tens of billions of dollars, the FT noted.

The FT article follows a report late Tuesday by Bloomberg saying London-based Unilever is in the early stages of considering a separation of its food assets, as it seeks growth from beauty, personal care and wellbeing brands.

Last year, Unilever spun off its ice cream division into separately listed Magnum Ice Cream NV, keeping an almost 20% stake that it will sell down in the coming years.

For its part, Kraft Heinz, which has its headquarters in Chicago and Pittsburgh, back in September had announced a plan to split in two, in a move that would have split brands including Heinz ketchup and Philadelphia cream cheese into an enterprise separate from Oscar Mayer cold cuts and other grocery items.

Executives in September described the move as a way to ‘unlock the potential of each brand to drive better performance’.

But in its February earnings announcement, Kraft Heinz said the transaction was on ‘pause’.

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