Royal Unibrew has acquired full ownership of Norwegian brewery and beverage company, Hansa Borg Bryggerier. Royal Unibrew already had a 25% stake in the company and is acquiring the remaining 75% holding for NOK 2.5 billion (approx. $286.3 million), based on an enterprise value of NOK 3.3 billion (approx. $377.8 million). Together with Solera Beverage Group, which Royal Unibrew purchased last year, this acquisition is expected to create a strong multi-beverage market presence for Royal Unibrew in Norway. Hansa Borg Bryggerier is Norway’s second-largest brewery and beverage company with four breweries and one bottling plant in the country. The company's products include beers, ciders, soft drinks, waters and wines. Lars Jensen, CEO of Royal Unibrew, commented: “I am very pleased to announce that we have entered into an agreement to acquire Hansa Borg Bryggerier and we look forward to welcoming our new colleagues to Royal Unibrew. We have been minority shareholders in Hansa Borg Bryggerier since 2002 and have for a long period of time wanted to expand our partnership for mutual interest. I am happy that it has finally succeeded and look forward very much to developing Hansa Borg Bryggerier into the leading multi-beverage provider in Norway." Closing of the transaction is pending approval from the Norwegian competition authority.

Canadian dairy company Saputo has announced Kai Bockmann is stepping down as president and chief operating officer (COO) ahead of his retirement on 4 March. Saputo says that Carl Colizza, its president and COO North America, and Leanne Cutts, president and COO International and Europe, are set to report to Lino Saputo, the Montreal-based company's CEO. According to Bockmann's LinkedIn page, he joined Saputo in 2012 as president and COO of the dairy products division (international) before being promoted in 2017. He then relocated from Lincolnshire, Illinois, to Montreal, Canada, to take on the role of Saputo president and COO. Prior to Saputo, Bockmann held several roles at McCain Foods, including managing director of McCain Foods Asia, president of McCain Foods international and director of global accounts. “Kai has contributed to building a strong and diverse leadership team and we thank him for his dedication and involvement over the last ten years," said Lino Saputo.

Kellogg's has introduced three new flavours to its Nutri-Grain portfolio in the US, including two new soft-baked breakfast bars and a new bite-sized snack. Nutri-Grain Strawberry & Squash and Apple & Carrot soft-baked breakfast bars are made with fruit and veggie flavours and contain eight grams of whole grains. The bars will be offered at an SRP of $3.99 for an eight-count box. Meanwhile, Nutri-Grain Chocolatey Banana Bites contains a chocolatey banana-flavoured filling and whole grains. The portable snack will be available at an SRP of $3.69 for a five-count box and $5.79 for a 10-count box. "We're always looking to create fresh flavour combos at Kellogg's, and Nutri-Grain never stops innovating to offer parents new ways to serve breakfast and snacks their kids will love and that they can feel good about," said Sarah Reinecke, senior marketing director at Kellogg Company.

Weetabix has released a new addition to its Oatibix cereal portfolio with a new variation of the oat-based cereal. The new launch, Nutty Crunch, features honeycomb pieces, honey-coated corn flakes and caramelised nuts. It's also 100% wholegrain, naturally low in salt, high in fibre and HFSS-compliant. Gareth Turner, head of marketing at Weetabix, said: "Oats are a signpost for healthy eating and this innovation offers great health nutritionals, as well as performing incredibly strongly in our taste tests. As the whole Oatibix range is HFSS-compliant, we can put our full support behind the brand refresh, through online and in-store shopper marketing, the upcoming TV advert and on social media." Nutty Crunch will be available from 28th February across UK grocery and convenience stores in 450g packs for an RRP of £3.29.

US food technology company Benson Hill has announced its acquisition of ZFS Creston, a food-grade white flake and soy flour manufacturer, for approximately $102 million. The deal enables Benson to convert its proprietary soybeans into soy protein ingredients, with applications including plant-based meat, meat extension, bakery, cereal, snacks and fermentation. The acquisition will also allow Benson to deliver a portfolio of non-GMO ingredients that are less processed, sustainable, traceable and domestically sourced. Creston is well equipped to produce soy meal and oil, as well as "food-grade" soy white flake, flour and grits, which can be used as ingredients or as a raw material for developing concentrates, isolates and textured protein products. “The acquisition of ZFS Creston, combined with our proprietary ultra-high protein soybean varieties, positions Benson Hill to deliver a portfolio of improved ingredients as an innovative unlock to bottlenecks in the rapidly growing but capacity-constrained plant-based movement,” said Matt Crisp, CEO of Benson Hill. He added: “This acquisition advances our integrated business model as a more efficient route to market with a smaller footprint that better aligns with consumer preferences, enabling us to harness the genetic potential of plants and help scale the growth of plant-based markets”. “The ZFS Creston team has done a terrific job optimising the facility and working with customers, suppliers and the Creston, Iowa community to create a successful, value-added food ingredient business,” said Eric Meeuwsen, ZFS Creston co-president and COO. He continued: “We are grateful for the hard work of everyone at ZFS Creston. We are confident Benson Hill will provide excellent opportunities for employees, local farmers and the community through the commercialisation of their innovative, higher nutrition, soy-based food ingredients.”

Plant-based dairy company Marvelous Foods has closed a $1.2 million funding round from investors including Lever VC. Based in Beijing, Marvelous Foods serves the Chinese market. The company’s first product, Yeyo coconut yogurt, is targeted specifically at millennial women in the country’s first tier cities. “There is enormous potential for plant-based dairy for everyone in China, and we are focusing on one target audience of opinion leaders in order to spearhead the adoption of this new category, and that is millennial women in China,” said Marvelous Foods founder and CEO, Christiana Zhu. Marvelous Foods plans to use the new funds to expand its product portfolio and distribution. Investors in the round include Lever VC, Satori Capital, HBG and New Climate Ventures. The company’s distribution footprint currently includes more than 90 outlets, and spans the foodservice, retail and e-commerce channels. “There is a long history of traditional plant-based drinks like soy milk in China, but a lack of plant-based 2.0 dairy alternatives,” said co-founder and COO, Athena Zhu. “Oatly has made a big impact on the plant-based milk category, but plant-based yogurt, ice cream and similar categories are still pretty much untouched. Yogurt in China is a $17 billion market, which presents a huge opportunity for high-quality plant-based products and brands to convert and capture.” Nick Cooney, managing partner of Lever VC, added: “Given… focus and understanding of the target consumer, we’re confident in their vision and capability to deliver tasty, healthy and innovative products that will have a real impact on the uptake of plant-based foods in China”.

Monster Beverage is entering the alcohol market with the $330 million acquisition of craft beer and hard seltzer maker, CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective. The deal will bring several alcohol brands into Monster's portfolio, including: Cigar City, Oskar Blues, Deep Ellum, Perrin Brewing, Squatters and Wasatch. However, the transaction does not include CANarchy's restaurants. According to Monster Beverage, the acquisition won't affect the organisational structure of its existing energy drink business. Monster’s vice chairman and co-CEO, Hilton Schlosberg, said: “This transaction provides us with a springboard from which to enter the alcoholic beverage sector. The acquisition will provide us with a fully in-place infrastructure, including people, distribution and licenses, along with alcoholic beverage development expertise and manufacturing capabilities in this industry.” Monster’s chairman and co-CEO, Rodney Sacks, added: “The addition of CANarchy and its brands to the Monster beverage portfolio represents an excellent opportunity to further grow our already robust product offerings. We are excited to build and expand upon CANarchy’s existing brands with innovative new products.” CANarchy’s CEO, Tony Short, said: “We look forward to capitalising on the combined expertise of Monster and CANarchy to further strengthen our current alcoholic product offerings, expand our product portfolio to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers and to grow our business”. The transaction is expected to close in Q1 2022 and is subject to customary closing conditions.

Diageo-owned Guinness has announced that it plans to add the first zero-emission vehicles to its 'Quality' fleet this summer. Guinness already has a zero-emission vehicle, which is used at the brewery. As part of a trial, which is currently taking place, the vehicle is being used to transport bulk beer in the Guinness tankers from St James’s Gate to Dublin Port, to help determine whether it can be used to transport heavy goods beyond the brewery. The company will be adding four zero-emission trucks to its fleet later this year, and these will be used in a separate trial to deliver kegs to the hospitality trade in Dublin City, with the ambition to extend further if successful. Barry O’ Sullivan, managing director at Diageo Ireland, said: "We’re really pleased to announce that we will be introducing the first zero-emission vehicles into our 'Quality' fleet from this summer. We are committed to reducing our indirect emissions through this initiative and want to play a key role for sustainable transport in the commercial sector in Ireland." He continued: "We are only 263 years into our 9,000-year lease on the St James’s Gate Brewery and we are in it for the long haul — for our people, our products and our planet, and we will never settle in pursuit of a better, more sustainable future for everyone”. The company's ambition is for 70% of the 'Quality' fleet to be zero-emission by the end of 2025 and 100% by 2030.

Puratos has acquired Belgian probiotics company THT, as it looks to accelerate developments in gut health. THT manufactures microbiological mass for the food industry and works with over 30 probiotic strains with varied applications, including bifidobacterium, enterococcus and lactobacillus. The company provides probiotics in bulk or as finished products. Other specific services the business offers include personalised product development, technical support and quality evaluation assistance. Pierre Tossut, CEO at Puratos, commented: “Through the acquisition of THT and its probiotics business, Puratos reaffirms its commitment to strongly invest in the scientific knowledge of gut health and the discovery of new powerful ingredients that improve the health and wellbeing of people everywhere.” Puratos' goal is to bring to the market more innovative solutions with gut health benefits, and turn bread into an everyday source of the nourishment the gut needs. The acquisition has been agreed for an undisclosed sum.

Swiss-based beer filtration systems supplier, Bucher Unipektin, a subsidiary of Bucher Industries, has announced the acquisition of Czech company Denwel. Founded in 1997, Denwel provides specialised cold block equipment for breweries. The acquisition will help Bucher Unipektin to strengthen its beer processing capabilities and technologies, and enable it to supply its brewery customers with entire cold block processing lines, "complementing its high-tech beer filtration systems with Denwel's water deaeration, blending, carbonation, nitrogenation, dosing, CIP and flash pasteurisation systems". Bucher Unipektin will now operate under a new name, Bucher Denwel. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The White Rabbit Pizza Co, known for its range of vegan pizzas, is launching a plant-based and gluten-free calzone in the UK. According to the company, the Chick’n & Pesto Calzone is the first vegan calzone in the market. The product is filled with creamy MozzaRisella, vine-ripened Sicilian chopped tomatoes, basil pesto and chick’n strips. White Rabbit's co-founder, Nick Croft-Simon, said: “At White Rabbit, we want to make a plant-based diet more inclusive via authentic, delicious taste credentials and we also want to make the switch easy". He continued: “Growth in plant-based has increased dramatically over the Covid-19 pandemic, with one in four of us reducing the amount of animal products we consume. The most compelling way to introduce this new audience into plant-based is to take away all compromises with ‘food for tonight’ that tastes incredible in a quick and convenient format.” The Chick'n & Pesto Calzone is available across Sainsbury's stores for an RRP of £5 per 290g box.

Halo Collective has agreed to purchase functional brand H2C Beverages, and has established a $30 million distribution agreement with Elegance Brands. Halo is a vertically integrated cannabis company that cultivates, extracts, manufactures and distributes cannabis flowers, oils and concentrates. Meanwhile, H2C Beverages focuses on cannabinoids and non-psychotropic mushrooms for its functional beverages. This agreement will expand Halo's foothold in the functional drinks market. H2C’s portfolio includes a line of premium flavoured waters and plant-based beverages infused with cannabinoids and functional mushroom extracts, with fulvic and humic minerals. Halo has also entered into a distribution agreement with Elegance Brands for its beverages, capsules and topical supplements under H2C and Halo’s functional mushroom brand, Hushrooms. Under the agreement, Elegance has agreed to purchase $30 million worth of H2C and Hushrooms branded products and to distribute these products into retail outlets across the US. This new category of functional supplements, nootropic nutraceuticals, will be marketed under three subcategories: active, relax and focus.