USA – Kraft Heinz the American multinational confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate, plans to buy Cerebos’s food and instant coffee and Asian home gourmet units from Japan’s Suntory, at a value worth US$228.2 million.
The deal, which includes Cerebos’s Saxa salt, Gregg’s and Bisto brands, is expected to be completed in early 2018.
However, the company’s fresh coffee business will continue to be operated by Suntory as it aims to capture a larger share of the global fresh coffee market.
According to FoodBev, Cerebos has market-leading brands in New Zealand and Australia across a number of categories, including sauces, gravies, herbs and spices, salt, condiments, Asian sauces, desserts and cooking ingredients.
“This transaction reinforces our commitment and long-term plan to the Australia and New Zealand markets in addition to our significant investment in the Kraft brand for 2018.
We will continue investing in our brands, factories and our employees to meet consumer needs and expectations,” said Chief executive of Kraft Heinz Australia and New Zealand Bruno Lino.
Cerebos Australia and New Zealand CEO Terry Svenson had also noted that the company was pleased with the outcome of the transaction.
“As we announced in April 2017, the food and instant coffee business has a number of market-leading brands across Australia and New Zealand and has made significant progress in recent years, particularly in relation to improvements in manufacturing efficiency.
However, food and instant coffee is not a core focus category for Suntory Beverage and Food and we believe this business can be maximised under different ownership.
The food and instant coffee business will now have opportunities to leverage Kraft Heinz’s operations to grow the business further,” concluded Svenson.
