Kerry acquires Quest Food ingredients
2nd March 2004
Kerry Foods announced today that they have agreed to buy the Quest Food Ingredients business from ICI for £238M.
Troubled ICI have been looking to reduce their debt burden for some time and the recent poor performance of Quest have made it a prime candidate for sale. Various companies have been implicated in a potential purchase of the Quest Food Ingredients business including Associated British foods and Danisco. However the deal has now been sealed and the business has gone to Kerry Food Ingredients.
Quest Food Ingredients had annual revenues of US$255M. The business being acquired includes 50% of the Malaysian joint venture in emulsifiers at Esterol and the emulsifier plant at Zwijndrecht in the Netherlands. Other plants include the Brantford emulsifier plant, the Cebu carrageenan factory, the Cork enzyme factory, the Norwich (US) proteins and lactose plant, the Menstrie yeast plant and the protein and blends plant in Utrecht in the Netherlands. ICI will retain the Quest flavours business.
This marks a new departure for Kerry Ingredients with the Quest business adding a range of ingredients to their portfolio and expanding their business into new areas such as tissue culture media and basic ingredients such as hydrocolloids and emulsifiers. Kerry already have some gum arabic production in the UK and this will add as econd hydrocolloid to their portfolio.