Unilever in talks to sell $33 billion food business to US rival McCormick

Unilever is in advanced talks to sell its food division to McCormick, the Maryland-based spice and condiment company, in a deal valued at approximately $33 billion. McCormick made an unsolicited offer for the unit, which includes Hellmann's mayonnaise, Knorr soups and seasonings, and Marmite. If completed, this would be one of the largest consumer goods acquisitions of 2026 and would more than double McCormick's current annual revenue, which stood at around $6.7 billion in its most recent fiscal year.

For Unilever, the sale is a logical next step in a restructuring that has been underway for several years. The company has been steadily moving its focus toward personal care and health products, categories where margins are higher and where it sees more room to grow. Food has been the part of Unilever's portfolio that analysts and investors have repeatedly pushed the company to address. Hellmann's and Knorr are strong brands in their respective categories, but they operate in markets with thin margins and heavy competition from private-label alternatives at major retailers.

Why McCormick wants this and what it would get

McCormick's existing business is built around spices, herbs, and flavor products sold under its own brand and through private-label agreements with retailers. It has a strong US presence and has been expanding internationally, but it has not had meaningful exposure to categories like condiments or meal bases at this scale. Acquiring Hellmann's alone would give McCormick the world's top-selling mayonnaise brand, with retail sales of roughly $3 billion annually across its global markets.

Knorr is the bigger strategic addition. The brand sells bouillon cubes, instant soups, and seasoning mixes in over 80 countries, with particularly strong market positions across Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia. Those are precisely the markets where McCormick has been trying to build scale without much success through organic growth. Buying Knorr would give McCormick a distribution infrastructure and brand recognition in those regions that would take decades to replicate independently.

How Unilever got here

Unilever's restructuring push accelerated after activist investor Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management took a stake in the company in early 2022, following Unilever's failed attempt to acquire GlaxoSmithKline's consumer health business for around 50 billion pounds. That bid was widely criticized by investors as overpriced, and it drew significant attention to the company's strategic direction. Peltz joined the Unilever board in July 2022, and the pressure to divest slower-growth assets has been a consistent theme since.

Unilever's current CEO, Hein Schumacher, who took over in July 2023, has been explicit about the company's plan to concentrate on fewer, higher-margin categories. The company has already sold or spun off several smaller brands. Offloading the entire food division in one transaction would be a significantly larger move, effectively completing the shift in a single deal rather than through a series of smaller disposals over several years.

The financing question and deal risks

A $33 billion acquisition would be by far the largest deal in McCormick's history. The company has roughly $4.3 billion in long-term debt currently on its balance sheet. Financing a deal of this size would require a combination of new debt, equity issuance, and potentially asset sales, and it would leave the combined company carrying a debt load that credit rating agencies would scrutinize closely. McCormick's investment-grade credit rating is one of the things that keeps its borrowing costs manageable, and taking on significant leverage to fund the acquisition would put that rating under pressure.

Regulatory approval is the other variable. A deal combining McCormick's existing spice and flavoring business with Knorr's seasoning and bouillon products would almost certainly attract attention from competition regulators in the United States, the European Union, and several other jurisdictions where both companies have significant market shares. Antitrust reviews of deals this size routinely take twelve to eighteen months, and there is a real possibility that regulators would require divestitures of specific product lines as a condition of approval.

Market reaction and what analysts are watching

Unilever's shares rose 4.2% in London trading on Friday after news of the talks was reported. McCormick's stock fell 3.8% in New York, which is a fairly typical market reaction when a buyer announces a large acquisition. Investors in the acquiring company often sell on concerns about execution risk and the cost of financing, while shareholders in the seller benefit from the expected premium over market price.

Both companies declined to comment publicly on the reported talks. Unilever is expected to provide an update on its strategic review at its Q1 2026 results presentation, currently scheduled for April 29. If a deal has been agreed by then, that presentation would be the natural moment for a formal announcement.