Two mammoth-sized food companies are toying with the idea of merging—a move that would upend the hierarchy of global consumer brands. If Unilever and Kraft Heinz come to an agreement, it would dethrone Nestlé as the world’s largest food company and bring under one roof hundreds of brands found in supermarkets everywhere.
Two mammoth-sized food companies are toying with the idea of merging—a move that would upend the hierarchy of global consumer brands. If Unilever and Kraft Heinz $KHC come to an agreement, it would dethrone Nestlé as the world’s largest food company and bring under one roof hundreds of brands found in supermarkets everywhere.
That’s still a pretty big “if.” Kraft Heinz itself is the product of a $40 billion merger in 2015 orchestrated by 3G Capital Partners and Warren Buffett, the world’s second-richest man. The company’s opening offer to Unilever, worth $143 billion in cash and stock, is of a different order.
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“Although there was little incentive for Unilever to accept this initial merger offer, Kraft Heinz and 3G Capital’s willingness to pursue a deal could ultimately encourage Unilever to seek a deal to offload some of its food brands, to which Kraft Heinz would seek to apply aggressive cost reductions,” said Raphael Moreau, a food analyst at Euromonitor.
If Kraft Heinz is able to entice Unilever to join forces, the companies will need approval by competition regulators around the world before such a sprawling mega-merger could go ahead. The sweep of the food and consumer products that would come under one umbrella—many of them recognizable global brands—is truly staggering. Here’s a list—warning, it’s very long:
With additional reporting by Jason Karaian
