--- title: The Unilever Deal Will Leave McCormick's Own Shareholders in the Minority description: McCormick's $44.8bn tie-up with Unilever Foods splits it into four divisions, adds a London listing, and leaves its own investors in the minority. author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-07-25T14:13:06.679Z updated: 2026-07-25T14:13:06.687Z canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/mccormick-unilever-foods-shareholder-minority image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/mccormick-hunt-valley-hq-30065.webp categories: Business content_type: News region: Global publication: Sovereign Magazine schema_type: Article --- When McCormick & Company's proposed combination with Unilever's Foods business closes, expected around the middle of 2027, the investors who currently own McCormick will hold only about a third of what comes out the other side. Under the deal's terms, Unilever is due to receive roughly $15.7 billion in cash alongside equity in the enlarged company, and Unilever together with its existing shareholders will hold about 65% of the combined business: existing Unilever shareholders taking 55.1%, and Unilever itself keeping a 9.9% stake. McCormick's own shareholders will hold the remaining 35%, even though the combined group keeps the McCormick name, its Hunt Valley, Maryland headquarters, and its primary New York Stock Exchange listing. This week McCormick filled in the operating detail that follows from that deal, first agreed in March: how the combined business will be organised, who will run it, and where it will list its shares. The company plans to reorganise into four commercial divisions once the deal closes, install a joint executive team drawn from both McCormick and Unilever Foods, and add a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange alongside its existing New York listing. McCormick and Unilever have said the combined company will have approximately $20 billion in combined fiscal 2025 revenue, nearly three times McCormick's $7 billion in sales today. ## How the Combined Company Will Be Organized The four divisions are built around geography and channel rather than brand. Americas Consumer, covering North, Central and South America, brought in $8 billion in 2025 sales. International Consumer, spanning Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific, added $7 billion. Global Food Service, which pairs Unilever's back-of-house catering and chef-facing expertise with McCormick's existing branded food-service business, contributed $4 billion. The smallest division, Global Flavor, made $2.5 billion supplying customised flavors, seasonings, condiments and coatings to food, beverage and consumer-health companies and restaurant chains, rather than selling directly to shoppers. ## Who Is Running the Combined Business Brendan Foley stays on as chairman, president and chief executive, with Marcos Gabriel continuing as chief financial officer. Each of the four divisions gets its own president: Andrew Foust takes Americas Consumer, Heiko Schipper takes International Consumer, Nuria Hernandez takes Global Food Service, and Suzanne Roy takes Global Flavor. Six function heads round out the team, spanning growth and marketing, supply chain, information and digital, human resources, legal, and research and development, under Tabata Gomez, Jennifer Han, Guy Peri, Sarah Piper, Jeff Schwartz and Heike Steiling respectively. The team will be split between Hunt Valley and the company's new international base in the Netherlands. ## Why London and the Netherlands The London listing was flagged when the deal was first announced in March, as a way to give European, and particularly Unilever's own, shareholders easier access to the stock once they hold a majority stake in the combined business. The commitment survived the intervening months: on Thursday McCormick confirmed it intends to seek admission to the London Stock Exchange at closing, alongside the international headquarters and substantial presence the combined company will keep in the Netherlands, where Unilever Foods already runs its research and development. McCormick's Hunt Valley campus remains the global headquarters, and the primary listing stays in New York. The announcement came just days after Britain's Competition and Markets Authority said it was seeking views on the deal, adding a regulatory step to a timetable that already runs to the middle of 2027. ## Where the Combined Company Sits in the Flavor Industry The new Global Flavor division puts McCormick in more direct competition with established flavor and fragrance houses that supply the same food and beverage manufacturers, among them Givaudan, IFF, Kerry Group, DSM-Firmenich and Sensient. Those companies compete on the same ground: recipe support and formulation science sold to industrial customers, rather than the retail shelf presence that has defined McCormick's existing consumer brands. > "Our planned operating model is designed to place consumers and customers at the center of the combined business." > — Brendan Foley, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, McCormick & Company ## FAQ **Q: Why is McCormick merging with Unilever?** The deal combines Unilever's global foods arm, brands including Hellmann's, Knorr, Marmite and Colman's, with McCormick's own spice, condiment and flavoring business to create a company the two sides are positioning as a global flavor leader spanning consumer, food-service and industrial customers. **Q: Is McCormick owned by Unilever?** Not in the way the McCormick name might suggest. The enlarged company keeps McCormick's name, headquarters and primary stock listing, but under the deal's terms Unilever and its own shareholders are due to hold about 65% of the combined business once it closes, leaving McCormick's existing shareholders with the remaining third. **Q: Is McCormick bigger than Unilever?** Not overall. Unilever's foods arm is only one part of a larger group that also includes personal care and home care brands outside this deal. Within the transaction itself, though, McCormick is the entity whose name, ticker and Maryland headquarters carry forward, even as its own investors become minority stakeholders.