Kraft Heinz agrees to acquire Turkey’s Assan Foods

Kraft Heinz has reached an agreement to acquire Turkish sauce company Assan Foods from Kibar Holding in a deal worth approximately $100m.

The acquisition is in line with Kraft Heinz’s international growth strategy that is focused on taste elevation and foodservice.

Through this deal, Kraft Heinz intends to build its retail and foodservice business across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Kraft Heinz International Zone president Rafael Oliveira said: “This is a great opportunity to accelerate our international growth strategy centred on taste elevation.

“We believe Assan Foods is a high-performance organisation that brings best-in-class local innovation and production of sauces and tomato products, as well as a significant distribution network in the fast-growing foodservice channel, enabling us to further build our scale and agility by expanding the Heinz brand in Turkey, as well as our International Taste Elevation platform more broadly.”

Assan Foods is engaged in the production of tomato paste, ketchup and mayonnaise, along with pasta and meat sauces. These products are sold under various brands such as Colorado, Kingtom and Oba, as well as private label.

The company has local manufacturing facilities in Balikesir and Izmir. Its products are sold in the domestic market and are exported to 50 countries on four continents.

Since 2019, Assan Foods has been a certified production partner for Kraft Heinz.

Completion of the deal is subject to customary closing conditions, including merger control approval, and expected to take place in the second half of this year.

Last week, Kraft Heinz concluded the divesture of its nuts business to Hormel Foods in a $3.35bn cash transaction.