Cheese takes a big slice of the retail segment

Cheese Spot On

Consumer stockpiling due to lockdown has benefitted certain food & beverage players operating within the retail channel. In this issue of Spot On, Oaklins’ cheese specialist Davide Milano looks at COVID-19’s unexpected impact on food consumption and how giants like Kraft Heinz handled the surges in demand.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, dairy groups have focused on properly managing their own operations and benefitting from the mass retail channel demand. Sales to the hotel, restaurant and catering (HoReCa) segment dropped to zero, but for the majority of industry players they already represented only a minor share of turnover. Balance sheets in 2020 will be even stronger than before, and consequently, as M&A specialists in the international cheese arena, we expect transactions to pick up again early next year, when hopefully things will go back to some kind of normality. DAVIDE MILANO, CHEESE SPECIALIST, OAKLINS

We spotlight the multinational, multibrand, multichannel approach of Newlat Food. Angelo and Giuseppe Mastrolia grew the family business to become the first publicly listed Italian company in its sector in 2019 and one of the biggest food companies in Italy today. They explain the challenges they faced and the importance of M&A in their incredible journey.

Also in this edition, we chart recent M&A activity, summarize the rationale behind the latest deals — such as the acquisition of Kraft Heinz’s natural cheese business by Lactalis — and list selected company valuations to keep you up-to-date with current industry trends.

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