47 acquisitions in January, again

January 2015 saw the same number of food and drink industry transactions recorded on the bevblog.net database as for January 2014 – a total of 47.

Last year, the first month focus was on alcohol. This year, it was packaging, with 3 deals involving sums over $1,000 million – all 3 in packaging:

• $15,700 million sales from the US merger of RockTenn and MeadWestvaco
• €2,300 million for France’s Wendel to buy Constantia Flexibles in the United States
• $1,400 million for Verso Paper to purchase NewPage in the United States.

Of the 47, as many as 11 were in packaging, with 6 in dairy, 6 in soft drinks, 5 in alcohol and 4 in bakery.

21 countries featured. The United States was active in 28, the United Kingdom in 9 and France in 7, with all the rest on 1 or 2. 26 took place entirely within national borders and 21 were cross-border deals.