Major Moves in the Food Industry: Instead of Cutthroat Competition, Collaboration—Joint Ventures, M&A, and Restructuring Intensify

With the evolution of the industry market and shifting consumer demands, an increasing number of food enterprises are leveraging 'digital intelligence' to vigorously advance digital and intelligent transformation. Through digital-intelligent integration, various enterprise systems coalesce into an industrial internet ecosystem, seamlessly connecting every link across the manufacturing chain. Specifically among consumer brands, some companies have invested in supply-chain enterprises or built their own supply-chain teams—and further integrated these with digital intelligence. They are comprehensively digitizing and intelligently upgrading raw material procurement and logistics, store operations, personnel management, and other areas. Last year, the emerging dairy brand “Adopt a Cow” announced a strategic partnership with Alibaba Cloud. The two parties will collaborate extensively—leveraging cloud computing, IoT, big data, and intelligent algorithms—in smart pastures, intelligent factories, digital-intelligent supply chains, consumer and marketing management, and channel operations—aiming to enhance production and operational efficiency while enriching consumers’ omnichannel interactive experiences. Source: Adopt a Cow In the foodservice sector, since 2022, the Xiabu Group has progressively launched digital systems covering supply chain management, store operations, membership marketing, and intelligent manufacturing—all aligned with the broader layout of the digital economy. To build a digital-intelligent industrial cluster center for healthy food, Xiabu Group jointly invested with Richen Foods to establish Richen Foods (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. This initiative aims to further optimize consumers’ digital experience and provide fresh insights for addressing food industry challenges related to safety, taste, and innovation—thereby leading overall industry renewal and iteration. 4. Health-Oriented Trends After three years of pandemic, Chinese consumers’ health awareness has awakened. In the post-pandemic era, health-related anxiety remains widespread—causing previously niche categories like dietary supplements and wellness activities to gain growing attention. As consumer focus on healthy eating continues rising, health-oriented consumption trends remain robust across the food industry. For food enterprises deeply engaged in the broader health industry, pursuing M&A and restructuring aligned with nutritional health trends—and fully leveraging complementary strengths in technological innovation, health industry expertise, and international operations—may help them identify new growth opportunities amid the current fragmented and chaotic health sector. In recent years, acquisitions and mergers in the nutrition and health domain have been steadily increasing. A prominent example is DSM’s announcement of its merger agreement with Firmenich, forming the world-leading innovation and creation partner “DSM-Firmenich,” focused on nutrition, cosmetics, and health. As an international group specializing in nutritional health products, chemical raw materials, and pharmaceuticals, DSM simultaneously announced on the day of the Firmenich merger that it would divest its Engineering Materials business to Advent International—a specialist polymer materials manufacturer—and LANXESS—a specialty chemicals manufacturer—for an enterprise value of €3.85 billion. Upon completion of both transactions, DSM will fully transform into a company dedicated to health, nutrition, and biosciences. 02■ Exploring Market-Driven M&A and Restructuring Pathways— While Also Watching Out for Potential Pitfalls Economist George Stigler once remarked: “No major U.S. corporation has grown to its present position without some form of merger or acquisition.”

2021 Annual M&A Events in the Food & Beverage Industry | Reading the Era’s Underlying Tone Through Giants’ Wingspan

Transaction Value: USD 3.3 billion (approx. RMB 21 billion) Disclosure Date: August 2021 In early August 2021, PepsiCo announced it would sell its North American Tropicana (Pure Fruit) and Naked Juice brands—as well as certain juice businesses in European markets—to private equity firm PAI Partners for USD 3.3 billion. PepsiCo and PAI will jointly establish a new joint venture, holding a 39% equity stake; PAI will become the majority shareholder of the transferred business. The transaction was scheduled to close by the end of 2021 or early 2022. According to official statements, this move will allow PepsiCo to concentrate on its current diversified product portfolio—including healthy snacks, zero-calorie beverages, and SodaStream. In the Chinese market, PepsiCo’s juice brands had already entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Master Kong in 2011, entrusting the latter with manufacturing and distribution. As of now, this arrangement remains unaffected. Data from beverage marketing firm Beverage Marketing Corporation shows that U.S. consumption of juice and juice drinks declined by 19% between 2011 and 2020. During the same period, PepsiCo’s juice product sales dropped by 36%. In 2020, PepsiCo’s juice business generated approximately USD 3 billion in net revenue—a sizable figure, yet with lower profitability than its other business segments. Over the past decade, beverage giants such as PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have consistently shifted away from sugary drinks toward low-calorie categories—expanding into sugar-free sodas, flavored sparkling waters, teas, coffees, sports drinks, and protein shakes. Against the global trend toward low-sugar, low-calorie foods, the fate of juice within PepsiCo’s portfolio may have long been sealed. V. Infant Formula Giant Changes Hands: Chunhua Capital Acquires Mead Johnson China Transaction Value: USD 2.2 billion (approx. RMB 14 billion) Disclosure Date: September 2021 In September 2021, UK-based consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser Group—which owns brands including Durex and Dettol—issued a global statement announcing the formal completion of its transaction with Chunhua Capital. Under the agreement, Reckitt sold its Greater China infant nutrition business to Chunhua Capital for USD 2.2 billion, including production facilities located in the Netherlands and Guangzhou. The deal also grants Chunhua Capital perpetual, exclusive, royalty-free rights to use the Mead Johnson brand and its sub-brands—Enfamil, Enfapro, and Enfagrow—in the Greater China region. Nonetheless, buoyed by confidence in the Chinese infant formula market, Reckitt retained an 8% equity stake in the business. Founded in the United States in 1905, Mead Johnson is a globally renowned infant formula brand and went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2009. According to Euromonitor data, the top five players by market share in China’s infant formula segment are: Yili Feihe, Nestlé, Danone, Junlebao, and Mead Johnson China. In 2017, Reckitt announced its USD 17.9 billion acquisition of Mead Johnson, marking its first entry into the infant food sector. Four years later, this business transitioned to Chunhua Capital—a firm that has previously invested in Alibaba, Yum China, Junlebao, and ByteDance. VI. Largest Dairy Industry Joint Venture of the Year: Yili Takes Control of Ausnutria Transaction Value: HKD 6.245 billion (approx. RMB 5.1 billion)

Panzani, Cerealis in Talks to Create €1.8 Billion European Food Group

17 hours ago

French pasta maker Panzani and Portuguese Cerealis are in exclusive talks to merge into a €1.8 billion European food group, aiming to consolidate operations amid rising costs and strengthen bargaining power with retailers.

reuters

2026-10-16

Panzani, Cerealis in Talks to Create €1.8 Billion European Food Group

Panzani, Cerealis in Talks to Create €1.8 Billion European Food Group

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