Kerry signs Cargill Flavor Systems deal

02-Dec-2011 - Last updated on 02-Dec-2011 at 10:57 GMT

The Kerry Group has aquired Cargill’s global flavours operation in a £147M deal

The Kerry Group has completed its acquisition of Cargill’s global flavours operation.

The deal, which is worth £147M (US$230M), gives the Irish firm control of a business with annual revenues of about £128M ($200M).

Kerry said the deal strengthened its ability to “provide integrated customer solutions across all food and beverage end-use markets”.

Kerry chief executive Stan McCarthy said the acquisition would also extend the group’s activities into emerging markets.

Cargill Flavor Systems (CFS) has a global customer base, for which it provides flavour ingredients and flavour systems for beverage, dairy, sweet and savoury applications.

International workforce

It employs 700 people in centres in the UK, France, South Africa, India, Malaysia, China, the USA, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Brazil. They have now joined Kerry’s international workforce of 23,000.

CFS also has a supporting sales network in 12 further countries.

The two firms had announced in July that they were holding exclusive discussions and a definitive sales agreement was signed on September 22.

The deal was completed this week following clearance from the competition authorities.