Record 72 acquisitions in July

I wondered when it would happen. The September 2014 record of 62 food and drink transactions registered on the bevblog.net database was broken in July 2017 when there were 72.

Many of them were substantial, with 10 over $500 million, including 5 above $1,000 million:

• $4,200 million for US based McCormick to buy UK based Reckitt Benckiser’s food activities

• $1,800 million for Mexico’s Lala to win Brazil’s Vigor dairy business

• $1,300 million for Starbucks to acquire the remaining 50% of its East China joint venture from Uni-President and President

• $1,300 million for US based Multi-Color Corporation to take on Austria based Constantia Flexibles’ label operations

• $1,250 million for Refresco of the Netherlands to purchase the soft drinks manufacturing business of Cott from Canada.

Of the 72 total, 10 were in alcohol, 9 in dairy, 8 in soft drinks, 6 in meat, 5 in bakery, 4 in ingredients, 4 in plant-based, 3 in confectionery and 3 in packaging.

41 were international and 31 within national borders, 22 of these in the United States.

Overall 37 involved the United States, 8 the United Kingdom, 6 France, 6 the Netherlands, 5 Mexico (all purchases), 4 Canada (all sales), 4 Germany, 4 Italy and 4 Switzerland. Australia, China and Spain each contributed 3. 17 other countries were affected as well.