Kerry sells sweet ingredients portfolio to IRCA for €500 M

The potential sale is expected to close in the first half of 2023

Kerry Group, headquartered in Ireland, has entered into exclusive negotiations to sell the trade and assets of its Sweet Ingredients Portfolio to IRCA, an international leader in chocolate, creams, and other high-quality semi-finished food ingredients, for a consideration of €500 million.

The Sweet Ingredients Portfolio is a leading manufacturer of sweet and cereal products with a broad range of technological capabilities, primarily serving the end markets of bakery, cereal, confectionery, dairy and ice cream in Europe and the US. Its operational footprint covers four manufacturing facilities in the US (in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, and California), and six facilities across the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and France. The portfolio incorporates a range of products spanning sweet particulates, chocolate confections, baked inclusions, variegates and fruit purées.

The combination of IRCA and Kerry’s Sweet Ingredients Portfolio is expected to create a global leader in semi-finished food ingredients with around €1 billion in revenues, a truly international footprint and a significant presence in the US. It would further strengthen IRCA’s leadership positioning and expand its broad assortment of high value-added ingredients.

This would represent IRCA’s third acquisition since it was acquired by Advent International, one of the largest and most experienced global private equity investors, in July 2022. This follows the recent acquisitions of Anastasi Group, a leading Italian pistachio ingredients company, and of Cesarin SpA, a leading artisanal fruit-based ingredients company.