Glanbia Nutritionals, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Glanbia plc, has agreed to acquire Foodarom. The latter is a Canadian-based custom flavour designer and manufacturer servicing the F&B industry with turnkey flavours and formulation support. Foodarom comprises a flavour library of more than 15,000 recipes and produces both liquid and powder products for various applications. The deal – pegged as a “strategic acquisition” – seriously scales the flavour arm of Glanbia’s business.

The two companies note how Foodarom is highly complementary to Glanbia Nutritionals’ solutions-based customer approach and focus areas, strengthening Glanbia’s capability in the area of flavours and nutritional solutions. The knowledge and experience of the combined R&D teams shall further strengthen Glanbia’s growing position in flavours and further enhance the company’s ability to provide optimized ingredient systems to its customers.

The Foodarom acquisition comes as Glanbia publishes its Half Year (HY) 2020 results for the six-month period ended 4 July 2020. The company reports a 25.4 % drop in earnings to EUR 85 m for the first half of the year, before interest, taxes, and amortization. However, Glanbia says it is in a strong position with revenues up by 2.3 %.

Net debt was EUR 650.9 m, which is a decrease of EUR 126.7 m versus the net debt position at the end of HY 2019. This represents a net debt to adjusted Ebitda ratio of 1.95 times. This financial strength positions Glanbia well to emerge strongly from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and provides the confidence to undertake strategic M&A such as the Foodarom acquisition.