Kerry Group buys US firms for €650m

KERRY Group has splashed out €646million on a string of US firms.

They include Biothera Inc’s Wellmune, which makes a branded natural food, beverage and supplement ingredient that has been clinically proven to strengthen the immune system.

The others are natural smoke and savoury grill flavour supplier Red Arrow Products and cocktail mix producer Island Oasis.

Kerry Group chief Stan McCarthy said the acquisitions, ‘as well as significantly expanding our taste and nutritional solutions portfolio, bring a number of important innovative technology platforms to Kerry’.

In the financial year 2014, the newly acquired businesses had annual revenues of €264million.

The company started life as a small Kerry-based dairy-processing company but has since grown into one of the largest consumer foods groups, valued at around €12billion.