 | |
| Formerly | Upfield B.V. (2018–2024) |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private |
| Industry | Consumer goods |
| Predecessors |
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| Founded | 2018; 7 years ago (2018) (by spin-off) |
| Founders | |
| Headquarters | , Netherlands |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | David Haines (CEO) |
| Products | Margarines,spreads |
| Owner | Kohlberg Kravis Roberts |
| Website | florafoodgroup |
Flora Food Group B.V. is a Dutchfood company owning multiple brands ofmargarine,food spreads, and plant-based foods, includingFlora andBlue Band. It states that it is the largest plant-basedconsumer packaged goods company in the world, operating in 95 countries.[1]
The company was spun off under the nameUpfield fromUnilever and purchased by investment firmKohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) in 2018 forUS$8.04 billion.[2]
Margarine was one of the first products sold by the company that would merge intoUnilever.[3]Antoon Jurgens ofOss, Netherlands, acquired the patent for making margarine from its inventorHippolyte Mège-Mouriès in 1871.[4] Through a series of mergers Jurgens' company becameMargarine Unie in 1927 and then Unilever in 1929.[5] Since that time, Unilever has added other margarine and food spread brands.
Although the food spreads division of Unilever maintained a robust profit margin, in the 21st century sales declined as many consumers switched tobutter. In the five years leading to 2014, sales of margarine fell 6%, while sales of butter rose 7%.[6]
Following a February 2017 takeover attempt byKraft Heinz, Unilever chief executivePaul Polman made a pledge to investors to boost returns. In April of the same year, Unilever put the margarine and spreads division up for sale with the intention of returning the net cash from the sale to shareholders.[2]
The sale sparked a bidding war amongbuyout firms includingApollo Global Management,CVC Capital Partners,Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, andBain Capital. According toBloomberg, it was the biggest-leveraged buyout in Europe in 2017.[3] In December 2017, Unilever accepted an offer of €6.8bn from investment firmKKR. The purchase, which was completed in July 2018, was funded by European and North American private equity funds that are under KKR's control.[7] The brands in the sale represented about 7% of Unilever's global business.[8]
In January 2020 they purchased Violife, a brand ofplant-based cheese.[9]
Following falling margarine sales as consumers switched to butter, since summer 2020 the company focused more on the "plant-based" market, also claimingsustainability, to increase sales.[10] The Group also announced it would invest €50 million in a facility for research and development on plant-based products, to be opened at the end of 2021.[11]
The company was renamed Flora Food Group in September 2024.
David Haines, non-executive director of tobacco companyImperial Brands, was appointedCEO in July 2018.[12] Current members of the Executive Committee are listed on the Upfield website.[13]
Flora Food Group's notable brands include:[14]
In southern Africa,Remgro-owned Siqalo Foods, rather than Upfield, holds the rights to several of these brands.
After Upfield was spin off from Unilever in 2018, thePurfleet-on-Thames factory was closed, making 200 employees redundant.[17] Underperformance and excessive costs were determined to be the reason for the closing of the factory.
In June 2020 it was made public that Upfield were tooffshore its factory inHelsingborg, Sweden,[18] with 80 employees notified of termination. The manufacture of Upfield's cheese & dairy products was scheduled to move to a factory inKleve, Germany by February 2021.[19] On 19 February 2025 it was revealed by local Swedish newspaperHelsingborgs Dagblad that the Helsingborg factory was set to close after nearly 50 years of operation following a decision to offshore the remainder of the productions to other European factories. The factory had been producingmargarine products such as Lätta,Becel, andFlora since its opening in 1968. 62 employees were directly impacted following the decision to close the factory. At its peak, the facility employed around 500 people, making it one of Helsingborg's larger workplaces.[20]
Buttermilk was added to now non-vegan UK production of Flora Buttery in 2020.[21]
In March 2021 Upfield announced that the factory inRotterdam would close in mid-2022.[citation needed]
In November 2021 Upfield bought Unilever's production factory inCali, Colombia, producing Rama, Violife and Blue Band.[22]
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