McCormick will merge with Unilever’s food business to create a new food giant valued at about $65 billion, the companies said on March 31.
Under the terms of the deal, McCormick will acquire Unilever Foods for $44.8 billion, with a mix of cash and equity. The transaction would combine Unilever’s stable of food brands, including Hellmann’s and Knorr, with McCormick’s roughly $20 billion business, whose portfolio includes French’s mustard, Old Bay seasoning, and Cholula hot sauce.
Unilever shareholders will own 55.1 percent of the combined company, while Unilever itself will retain a 9.9 percent stake. Together, that equity component is worth about $29.1 billion based on McCormick’s one-month volume-weighted average share price of $57.84. McCormick will also pay $15.7 billion in cash.
The combined company will keep the McCormick name. McCormick CEO Brendan Foley will remain in the top role, and the company will continue to be headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland. McCormick will add an international headquarters in the Netherlands, the longtime home of Unilever Foods, as well as a secondary stock listing in Europe.
Once the deal closes, Unilever will appoint four of the 12 directors on the combined company’s board. For the first two years, one of those directors will be a Unilever executive.
The companies said they expect the transaction to close in mid-2027, subject to McCormick shareholder approval and regulatory review.
Unilever CEO Fernando Fernandez described the merger as another step in “sharpening” the company’s portfolio and focusing more heavily on faster-growing businesses such as beauty and personal care. He added that Unilever plans to reduce its stake in the new food company over time in an orderly manner.
Separating the foods unit would also move Unilever further away from direct competition with major packaged-food rivals such as Kraft Heinz, Nestlé, and PepsiCo, while reinforcing its identity as a household, beauty, and personal care company.
Unilever was formed nearly a century ago through the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie and British soap maker Lever Bros. In recent years, it has steadily shed its slower-growing food assets.
In December 2025, Unilever spun off its ice cream business, which includes Talenti, Klondike, and Ben & Jerry’s. It sold its tea business, including Lipton, in 2021, and divested Country Crock and other spreads in 2017.
The Unilever–McCormick deal adds to a broader trend among packaged food and beverage companies slimming down through divestitures and spin-offs in response to weaker sales growth.
In September 2025, Kraft Heinz announced plans to split into two independent publicly traded companies, undoing much of the $23 billion merger that created the current company in 2015. Kraft Heinz has said the separation is intended to reduce complexity and allow each company to focus more effectively on its own growth strategy. In February, however, those plans were shelved.
Keurig Dr. Pepper is pursuing a similar breakup. The company said in August 2025 that, after completing its acquisition of the owner of Peet’s Coffee, it plans to separate into two companies, one focused on refreshment beverages and the other on coffee. That move would effectively dismantle the 2018 combination of Keurig and Dr. Pepper Snapple that created one of North America’s largest beverage companies.
