The Commerce Commission has cleared giant US food company Kraft Heinz to buy Cerebos Food & Instant Coffee and Asian Home Gourmet from Japan’s Suntory Beverage & Food, subject to the divestment of some sauce brands. Last October, the Cerebos Gregg’s food and instant coffee factory in Dunedin was sold, as part of the wider $A290 million ($NZ319.1 million) acquisition of New Zealand, Australian and Asian assets by The Kraft Heinz Company. In late April, Japanese corporate Suntory Group put up for sale its combined food and instant coffee divisions across Australia and New Zealand, but it retained the fresh coffee divisions. There had been a relatively recent $20 million refurbishment of the Cerebos Gregg’s Dunedin plant. "However, we consider the divestment offered by Heinz Wattie’s is sufficient to remedy the competitive harm the merger would cause and we have given clearance to the merger subject to the divestment undertaking."

Source: Otago Daily Times March 09, 2018 16:07 UTC