Kerry Group in talks over Cargill purchase
Announcing that negotiations had begun, Kerry’s chief executive Stan McCarthy said that the deal would enhance the Tralee-headquartered group’s status as a world leader in the areas of food ingredients and flavours provision.
“The acquisition… would again advance Kerry’s capability to provide unrivalled innovative integrated customer solutions across all food and beverage end-use markets and extend the group’s market spread in emerging markets,” he said.
The business division in question — Cargill Flavor Systems — boasts a well-established international flavour technology development expertise, serving a global customer base with flavour ingredients and systems for beverage, dairy, sweet and savoury applications.
The Minneapolis-headquartered Cargill group employs more than 130,000 people across 66 countries and is one of the world’s largest privately-owned companies. Its flavours division alone employs around 700.
Kerry — whose takeover of Headland Foods in Britain has just been referred to the Competition Commission there by the Office of Fair Trading over consumer price- fixing fears — is currently ranked as Ireland’s third-largest listed company, with an employee base of around 20,000. Last year nearly two-thirds of its group revenue come directly from its ingredients and flavours business.
Kerry said last month it anticipates annual earnings growth of over 10% for the next five years.
