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Confectionery giant Mars has struck a deal to snap up Pringles and Pop-Tart-maker Kellanova for nearly $36bn (\u00a328bn).<\/p>\n
The firms called it the biggest snacking buyout this year, while legal experts don’t expect any objections from regulators.<\/p>\n
The deal comes as cash-strapped consumers have been opting for cheaper own-brand junk food, according to market data specialists Mintel.<\/p>\n
There is also a trend to towards healthier snacking in the UK, it said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The huge, family-owned Mars makes sweet treats including Twix, Bounty, Milky Way, M&Ms and Skittles, and Kellanova has brands including Pop-Tarts.<\/p>\n
They both claim to sell healthier options too, including Nature’s Bakery for Mars and Nutrigrain for Kellanova.<\/p>\n
The proposed deal dwarfs Mars’ $23bn takeover of Wrigley in 2008, and is not expected to face too many regulatory hurdles, legal experts told the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n
Kellanova was spun off from Kelloggs in 2023, and sells snacks along with cereal outside North America.<\/p>\n
It will become part of Mars Snacking, led by Andrew Clarke, and based in Chicago. The deal is expected to complete in the first half of 2025, Mars said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Food and drink prices rose by close to a third between September 2021 and September 2023, the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank said.<\/p>\n
Junk food in the UK is also being squeezed by laws intended to cut down on how obese people get, and the incidence of other health-related problems from eating snacks with a lot of fat, salt and sugar.<\/p>\n
From October 2022 supermarkets could no longer promote junk food at store entrances, aisle ends and checkouts and their online equivalents in England.<\/p>\n
From October 2025 supermarkets won’t be able to do junk food “buy-one get-one free” offers – so-called “volume price promotions” – although Tesco and Sainsbury\u2019s have already cut these out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n