An agreement to purchase UK-based flavour and ingredients firm FDL has been reached by American agribusiness ADM.
Intended for completion by the end of next month, the transaction will see London-headquartered FDL become the latest addition to ADM’s global portfolio of businesses specialising in human and animal nutrition.
FDL is described as a leading developer and producer of premium flavour and functional ingredient systems, with many of its products used for baked goods such as pre-mixes, pastes, sauces, syrups, glazes, toppings, and couverture chocolate.
According to ADM, the projected sales for FDL this year are around $120m (£94.9m). The company operates three production facilities and two customer innovation centres in the UK, employing roughly 235 staff of which 40 are dedicated innovation specialists. To date, it has created more than 10,000 proprietary flavour formulations that enable accelerated speed to market for food products.
ADM also operates its own innovation centres across Europe, Asia, Latin America, and North America. Having first diversified into the nutrition sector in 2014 with the $3bn acquisition of Wild Flavours, it has continued to takeover brands in the sector including the acquisition of dairy ingredients supplier Revela Foods completed earlier this week.
“Our ongoing investments to add to our flavours portfolio are helping power our strategic work to build a global leader in nutrition,” said Calvin McEvoy, ADM’s president of global flavours.
“FDL’s innovative and agile formulation knowledge, deep end-use applications expertise, and strong customer base make them a great addition to ADM’s global flavour capabilities. We are incredibly impressed by the FDL team, and we believe both companies will benefit from each other as we work to expand our reach in key channels, particularly foodservice,” McEvoy added.
Eric Beatty, CEO of FDL, called ADM an “ideal partner” with capabilities that will provide new opportunities to strengthen its portfolio.
“In turn, the FDL team looks forward to helping add to ADM’s broad offerings with our diverse portfolio of flavour and functional ingredient systems, IP, and capabilities, as well as the entrepreneurial spirit and innovativeness of human talent that has enabled FDL to become a differentiated market leader today,” commented Beatty.
ADM, which is short for Archer-Daniels-Midland Company, started out as a linseed crushing business in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1902, and has since grown to become one of the world’s largest grain traders and processors of food commodities with a current turnover of $97.2bn.
Its UK subsidiary ADM Milling Ltd is a full member of the UK Flour Millers trade body and an associate member of the Federation of Bakers.
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