Kerry Group plc has announced that it has entered into exclusive negotiations to sell the trade and assets of its Sweet Ingredients portfolio to IRCA, an international leader in chocolate, creams and other semi-finished food ingredients, for a consideration of EUR 500 m. Kerry's Sweet Ingredients portfolio is a leading manufacturer of sweet and cereal products with a broad range of technological capabilities, primarily serving the end markets of bakery, cereal, confectionery, dairy and ice cream in Europe and the US. Its operational footprint covers four manufacturing facilities in the US as well as six facilities across the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and France.

The portfolio incorporates a range of products spanning sweet particulates, chocolate confections, baked inclusions, variegates and fruit purées. The expected attributable financial results for the year ended 31 December 2022 include revenues of EUR 405 m and an Ebitda of EUR 41 m.

The combination of IRCA and Kerry’s Sweet Ingredients portfolio is expected to create a global leader in semi-finished food ingredients with around EUR 1 bn in revenues. It would further strengthen IRCA’s leadership positioning and expand its broad assortment of high value-added ingredients. This would represent IRCA’s third acquisition since it was acquired by Advent International. This follows the recent acquisitions of Anastasi Group, a leading Italian pistachio ingredients company, and of Cesarin SpA, a leading artisanal fruit-based ingredients company.