{"id":112838,"date":"2026-08-28T12:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T12:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/112838\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T12:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T12:02:14","slug":"unilever-is-selling-colmans-to-quell-mustard-competition-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/112838\/","title":{"rendered":"Unilever is selling Colman’s to quell mustard competition fears"},"content":{"rendered":"

The London-based multinational agreed to sell its historic food division to US firm McCormick in March for \u00a333 billion.<\/p>\n

Unilever will be hoping to quell any potential competition concerns arising from the deal by spinning off Colman\u2019s into an independent entity, as McCormick already owns US mustard powerhouse French\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The sale will see well-known food brands such as Marmite, Knorr, Hellmann\u2019s, Frank\u2019s RedHot and Pot Noodle transferred to the McCormick portfolio, as CEO Fernando Fernandez pivots Unilever\u2019s focus towards beauty, wellbeing and personal care.<\/p>\n

Sky News reports that bankers from Rothschild have now been tasked with finding a buyer for Colman\u2019s, with the brand\u2019s valuation remaining \u201cunclear\u201d at this stage.<\/p>\n

Founded in Norwich in 1814, Colman\u2019s has grown into a household name in Britain and remains the undisputed leader in the mustard category, commanding more than 50% of the market nationally.<\/p>\n

Also read \u2192 McCormick reveals big plans and exec team for Unilever Foods merger<\/a><\/p>\n

On the planned sale, a Unilever spokesperson said: \u201cA decision has been taken to market the Colman\u2019s brand and assets to potential buyers in order to proactively seek to address potential competition concerns from the planned combination of Unilever Foods and McCormick.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiscussions are ongoing and the operations continue as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unilever\u2019s sale of its sizeable food business to McCormick will see existing shareholders retain a 65% stake in the newly formed company, with the American outfit controlling the remaining 35%.<\/p>\n

Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, told the press: \u201cCorporate tie-ups such as Unilever\u2019s food arm and McCormick are rarely a case of bolting two businesses together and running everything as normal. It\u2019s natural to review the enlarged operations and to jettison anything deemed non-core.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is speculation that Unilever and McCormick have put Colman\u2019s mustard up for sale. Colman\u2019s is synonymous with a Sunday roast or a ham sandwich in the UK but is less known beyond these shores. McCormick might believe the British brand doesn\u2019t cut the mustard or add significant value to its portfolio. After all, McCormick already owns French\u2019s and a host of other mustard-related sauces and powders.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThere won\u2019t be a shortage of interested parties lining up to own the quintessential British brand, with Premier Foods and Associated British Foods likely to be in the frame as possible buyers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The London-based multinational agreed to sell its historic food division to US firm McCormick in March for \u00a333…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[20694],"tags":[46286,22435,46287,46288,46289,1398,46290,46291,46292,46293,38841,46294,46295,39518,12213,46296],"class_list":["post-112838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-unilever","tag-can","tag-close-up","tag-colmans","tag-colmans-mustard","tag-condiment","tag-food-and-drink","tag-isolated-objects","tag-isolated-on-white","tag-isolated-background-objects","tag-mustard","tag-no-people","tag-product-shot","tag-reflection","tag-studio-shot","tag-unilever","tag-yellow"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117173036183853134","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}