Another record year for food and drink acquisitions in 2017

2017 was another record year for food and drink acquisitions with 727 transactions registered in the bevblog.net mergers and acquisitions database, an average of almost 14 each week.

The total is 113 more than in 2016 and 40% higher than five years ago. The number has increased each year apart from a dip in 2013.

The most active sectors were dairy on 72, ingredients and soft drinks on 68, then packaging on 54. Beer on 40 was ahead of spirits on 37 and wine on 30.

The top 15 sectors were the same as 2016, with the exception of plant-based replacing bottled water.

Plant-based deals quadrupled (+13), with nutrition up 121% (+17), meat up 67% (+16), snacks up 52% (+11), ingredients up 36% (+18) and dairy up 24% (+14). Wine activity dropped by 36% (-17) and packaging by 16% (-10).

The biggest deals in 2017

JAB Holdings buys into Panera Bread

Morinaga & Co merges with Morinaga Milk

KKR takes over Unilever’s spreads business

San Miguel Corp invests in San Miguel Pure Foods subsidiary

Campbell’s agrees $4.87bn deal for Snyder’s-Lance

For more mergers and acquisitions, see our dedicated M&A feed here.