Upfield Holdings B.V. is a Dutch

food company The food industry is a complex, global network of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the world's population. The food industry today has become highly diversified, with manufacturing ranging from small, traditional, ...

owning multiple brands of

margarine Margarine (, also , ) is a spread used for flavoring, baking, and cooking. It is most often used as a substitute for butter. Although originally made from animal fats, most margarine consumed today is made from vegetable oil. The spread was orig ...

, food spreads, and plant-based foods, including

Flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

and Blue Band. It states that it is the largest plant-based

consumer packaged goods Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), also known as consumer packaged goods (CPG), are products that are sold quickly and at a relatively low cost. Examples include non-durable household goods such as packaged foods, beverages, toiletries, cand ...

company in the world, operating in 95 countries. Upfield was spun off from

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...

and purchased by investment firm

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strate ...

(KKR) in 2018 for

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

8.04 billion.

History

Margarine Margarine (, also , ) is a spread used for flavoring, baking, and cooking. It is most often used as a substitute for butter. Although originally made from animal fats, most margarine consumed today is made from vegetable oil. The spread was orig ...

was one of the first products sold by the company that would merge into

Antoon Jurgens Antoon Jurgens (1805-1880) was a Dutch merchant and industrialist. He founded a butter company that grew to be one of the largest butter and margarine companies in Europe. His company was instrumental in the formation of Margarine Unie which, in ...

of Oss, Netherlands, acquired the patent for making margarine from its inventor

Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès (; 24 October 1817 – 31 May 1880) was a French chemist and inventor who is famous for his invention of margarine. Early life Hippolyte Mège was born on 24 October 1817 in Draguignan to Jean Joseph-Emmanuel Mège and ...

in 1871. Through a series of mergers Jurgens' company became

Margarine Unie Naamloze Vennootschap Margarine Unie (English: Margarine Union Limited) was a Dutch company formed in 1927 in Oss by the merger of four margarine companies, Antoon Jurgens United, Van den Bergh's, Centra, and Schicht's. Margarine Unie was the dom ...

in 1927 and then Unilever in 1929. Since that time, Unilever has added other margarine and food spread brands. Although the food spreads division of Unilever maintained a robust profit margin, in the 21st century sales declined as many consumers switched to

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condiment ...

. In the five years leading to 2014, sales of margarine fell 6%, while sales of butter rose 7%. Following a February 2017 takeover attempt by

Kraft Heinz The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC), commonly known as Kraft Heinz, is an American multinational food company formed by the merger of Kraft Foods and Heinz co-headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh. Kraft Heinz is the third-largest food and beverage ...

, Unilever chief executive

Paul Polman Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman, (born 11 July 1956) is a Dutch businessman and author. He was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the British consumer goods company Unilever. Polman is also the author of ''Net Positive: How Courageous Co ...

made a pledge to investors to boost returns. In April of the same year, Unilever put the margarine and spreads division up for sale with the intention of returning the net cash from the sale to shareholders. The sale sparked a bidding war among

buyout In finance, a buyout is an investment transaction by which the ownership equity of a company, or a majority share of the stock of the company is acquired. The acquiror thereby "buys out" the present equity holders of the target company. A buyout ...

firms including

Apollo Global Management Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American global private-equity firm. It provides investment management and invests in credit, private equity, and real assets. As of March 31, 2022, the company had $512 billion of assets under management, ...

CVC Capital Partners CVC Capital Partners is a Luxembourg-based French private equity and investment advisory firm with approximately US$133 billion of assets under management and approximately €157 billion in secured commitments since inception across American, E ...

Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Clayton, Dubilier & Rice is an American private equity company. It is one of the oldest private equity investment firms in the world. Founded in 1978, CD&R has managed the investment of more than $30 billion in approximately 90 businesses, repre ...

, and

Bain Capital Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry se ...

. According to

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and ma ...

, it was the biggest-leveraged buyout in Europe in 2017. In December 2017, Unilever accepted an offer of €6.8bn from investment firm KKR. The purchase, which was completed in July 2018, was funded by European and North American private equity funds that are under KKR's control. The brands in the sale represented about 7% of Unilever's global business. In January 2020 they purchased Violife, a brand of plant-based cheese. Following falling margarine sales as consumers switched to butter, since summer 2020 the company focussed more on the "plant-based" market, also claiming

sustainability Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...

, to increase sales. The Group also announced it would invest €50 million in a facility for research and development on plant-based products, to be opened at the end of 2021.

Leadership

David Haines, non-executive director of tobacco company

Imperial Brands Imperial Brands plc (formerly Imperial Tobacco Group plc), is a British multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, England. It is the world's fourth-largest international cigarette company measured by market share after Philip Mo ...

, was appointed

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

in July 2018. Current members of the Executive Committee are listed on the Upfield website.

Products and operations

Upfield's notable brands include: *

, a margarine * Violife, a vegan product range *

Country Crock Country Crock is a food brand owned by Upfield. It originally sold spreads such as margarine (and cheese for a limited time), but later extended to side dishes, particularly mashed potatoes and pasta, made by Hormel under license. The origin ...

, margarines and spreads * Rama, a margarine and cooking cream brand (Germany) * Blue Band, margarines, and cheese and vegetable fat spreads *

I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! is a brand of a spreadable emulsion of vegetable oil in water with butter flavorCalvani Terry. ''Antitrust Law Journal'', 1989, "Advertising Regulation: The States v. FTC. "...a nationally distributed butter subs ...

, a vegetable oil-based spread *

Becel Becel is a brand of vegetable oil spread produced by Upfield. In France it is sold as Fruit D'or in the United States as Promise. The name ''Becel'' originates from the initials BCL (Blood Cholesterol-Lowering). When introduced, the makers of B ...

, plant-based margarines ** ProActiv, a Becel sub-brand * Lätta, a margarine brand in Sweden and Germany *

Bertolli Bertolli is a brand of Italian food products produced by multiple companies around the world with the trademark owned by Mizkan Holdings. Originating as a brand of extra-virgin olive oil, in which it was the global market leader, pasta sauces an ...

is a brand of Italian food products produced by multiple companies around the world with the trademark owned by Mizkan Holdings; Upfield produces a Bertolli olive oil spread range * Elmlea, a range of buttermilk and vegetable oil blends sold as cream alternatives * Fruit d'Or, margarine * Planta Fin, margarine *

Stork (margarine) Stork is a brand of margarine spread manufactured primarily from palm oil and water, owned by Upfield, except in southern Africa, where it is owned by the Remgro subsidiary Siqalo Foods. When it was introduced into the United Kingdom and Ireland ...

* Delma, a margarine brand * Minyak Samin Cap Onta (Indonesia only) * Frytol, solid vegetable oil (Indonesia only) In southern Africa,

Remgro Remgro Limited is an investment holding company based in Stellenbosch, South Africa. It has interests in banking, financial services, packaging, glass products, medical services, mining, petroleum, beverage, food and personal care products. In ...

-owned Siqalo Foods, rather than Upfield, holds the rights to several of these brands. After Upfield was spun off from Unilever in 2018, the

Purfleet Purfleet-on-Thames is a town in the Thurrock unitary authority, Essex, England. It is bordered by the A13 road to the north and the River Thames to the south and is within the easternmost part of the M25 motorway but just outside the Greater Lond ...

-on-Thames factory was closed, making 200 employees redundant. Underperformance and excessive costs were determined to be the reason for the closing of the factory. In June 2020 it was made public that Upfield were to offshore its factory in

Helsingborg Helsingborg (, , , ) is a city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania (Skåne), Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Scania (after Malmö) and ninth-largest in Sweden, with a population of 113,816 (2020). Helsingborg is the cent ...

, Sweden, with 80 employees notified of termination. The manufacture of Upfield's cheese & dairy products was scheduled to move to a factory in

Kleve Kleve (; traditional en, Cleves ; nl, Kleef; french: Clèves; es, Cléveris; la, Clivia; Low Rhenish: ''Kleff'') is a town in the Lower Rhine region of northwestern Germany near the Dutch border and the River Rhine. From the 11th century ...

, Germany by February 2021. Buttermilk was added to now non-vegan UK production of Flora Buttery in 2020. In March 2021 Upfield announced that the factory in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

would close in mid-2022. In November 2021 Upfield bought Unilever's production factory in

Cali Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,227,642 residents according to the 2018 census. The city spans with of urban area, making Cali the second ...

, Colombia producing Rama, Violife and Blue Band.

References

External links

* {{Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Condiment companies Private equity portfolio companies Dairy products companies of the Netherlands 2018 mergers and acquisitions Food and drink companies established in 2018 Food and drink companies of the Netherlands Manufacturing companies established in 2018 Manufacturing companies based in Amsterdam Former Unilever companies Corporate spin-offs Kohlberg Kravis Roberts companies Dutch companies established in 2018 Margarine