Unilever weighs food split
Unilever is exploring a separation or sale of its food business and has even held talks with McCormick—moves that reflect intense scrutiny of growth and margin performance across its packaged‑foods portfolio. The potential divestiture will reshape valuation benchmarks and offer a live case study in driver‑level decomposition of revenue, margins, and working capital. (retailgazette.co.uk) (economictimes.indiatimes.com)
McCormick published a formal press release on March 20, 2026 confirming the company is “engaged in discussions” about a potential strategic transaction involving Unilever’s Foods business. (ir.mccormick.com) Unilever’s Foods group reported turnover of €12.9 billion in the 2025 financial year, with underlying sales growth of 2.5% in that segment. (unilever.de) Foods represented roughly one quarter of Unilever’s €50.5 billion group turnover in 2025, with Beauty & Wellbeing and Personal Care together larger than Foods in the reported year. (unilever.de) Multiple outlets cited people familiar with the matter saying any transaction could be structured as an all‑stock combination and might be concluded on a near‑term timetable, with reporters flagging a potential outcome within weeks. (bloomberg.com) Advisers and market commentators have placed a potential valuation of a carved‑out Foods business in the “tens of billions” of dollars range, reflecting the scale of brands such as Hellmann’s and Knorr within the €12.9 billion food turnover. (business-standard.com) Separate discussions between Unilever and Kraft Heinz over combining parts of their food portfolios took place in recent months but were reported to have ended without agreement before the McCormick approach surfaced. (money.usnews.com) Unilever’s CEO Fernando Fernández, appointed effective March 1, 2025, has publicly prioritized shifting investment toward higher‑margin Beauty & Wellbeing and Personal Care categories and completed the demerger of the ice‑cream business in 2025 as part of that repositioning. (unilever.com)
