Unilever has entered into an agreement to combine its foods business with McCormick & Company.

To purchase most of Unilever Foods’ portfolio, McCormick will pay $15.7 billion. Unilever shareholders will own 55.1% of the combined company, while Unilever will hold a 9.9% stake, said reports.

Over time, Unilever intends to sell down its stake.

With the sale, the Happi International Top 30 Company will become more nimble and influential in the household and personal care industries.

“We will be the second‑largest beauty and personal care business in the world (see here for the first), the largest home care business in emerging markets, and we have an exciting, fast‑growing portfolio in wellbeing,” saidUnilever CEO Fernando Fernandez. “The future is about taking Unilever onwards and upwards through a focus on organically growing our fabulous portfolio of leading and digitally native disruptive brands.”

Post-completion, Unilever will operate across beauty, wellbeing, personal care and home care, with leading positions in attractive categories, fast-growing geographies and channels through a portfolio of high-performing, innovative brands.

Following separation, and based on FY25 revenues, Unilever is expected to have a superior footprint in faster-growing markets, with anchor markets of the United States and India contributing 38% of Group turnover (versus 33% in FY25) and emerging markets contributing 62% of Group turnover (versus 59% in FY25). Exposure is increased to geographies with higher population growth, increasing urbanization and number of households, growing female labor participation and wealth expansion, the company said in a release about the McCormick deal.

In addition, Unilever pointed to a “scaled R&D backbone to accelerate disruptive premium innovation, built on common science and technology platforms—in areas such as formulation design, microbiome, surfactants, fragrances and packaging design—alongside shared digital and AI-led discover and design, regulatory and laboratory infrastructure.”

Busy Time for Deals

The M&A sector is heating in 2026. Henkel just bought Olaplex and Puig is reportedly in talks with Estée Lauder, as seen here.