Unilever has agreed to combine its food brands with McCormick & Company in a deal valued at £50 billion ($66 billion), transferring ownership of household names including Marmite, Hellmann’s, Knorr, Bovril, Colman’s mustard and Pot Noodle to an American-led entity.
Under the terms of the agreement, Unilever will retain a 65% stake in the combined business, but day-to-day control passes to McCormick, which will supply the management team and run the operation under its own name from a US headquarters with a New York stock listing. Unilever will also receive $15.7 billion in cash. McCormick’s existing portfolio — which includes French’s mustard and Schwartz spices — will be merged with Unilever’s food range to create what both companies describe as a global flavour business with significant scale.
For Unilever, the deal is the latest in a long series of portfolio moves designed to exit traditional food and focus resources on faster-growing categories including personal care, beauty and health. The company previously sold its spreads division in 2017, its tea business in 2022, and recently completed the demerger of its ice cream operations. Chief executive Fernando Fernández framed the McCormick transaction as a decisive step in that repositioning.
The companies expect to extract around $600 million in cost savings from the combination, mainly through purchasing leverage and operational consolidation. That prospect has raised concerns about potential job losses and factory closures, particularly in the UK, where several of the brands being transferred have deep roots. Marmite has been made in Burton-on-Trent since 1902; Colman’s mustard traces its history to Norwich in 1814. McCormick’s chairman Brendan Foley acknowledged that efficiencies could extend to manufacturing and distribution, without committing to specific plans.
Unilever’s shares fell more than 7% after the announcement, reflecting investor unease about the deal’s complexity and the long road to completion — regulatory approval is not expected until mid-2027. The transaction also continues a pattern that has drawn criticism in the UK before: historic British food brands passing into foreign ownership, a list that already includes Cadbury and Lea & Perrins.
For McCormick, the deal is transformational in scale, turning it from a well-regarded spices and condiments company into a genuinely global food group. For Unilever, it clears the decks of a food portfolio that has increasingly looked like a strategic distraction — provided the regulators agree and the integration delivers what’s been promised.