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Glanbia Nutritionals strikes deal to acquire Watson Inc

20-Feb-2019 - Last updated on 20-Feb-2019 at 17:55 GMT

Glanbia Nutritionals - a $1.4bn nutritional ingredients and cheese business - has struck a deal to acquire Watson, a Connecticut-based manufacturer and supplier of custom nutrient premixes, bakery ingredients, edible films and material conditioning products.

The deal - for a reported $89m - will strengthen Glanbia Nutritionals' capabilities in microencapsulation, agglomeration, micronizing, spray drying and edible film technologies, said CEO Brian Phelan.

“We are excited to welcome the 300 employees of Watson with their established reputation of expertise, technical capability and commitment to excellence. The customers of both organizations will stand to benefit significantly from the combined capabilities that the two teams now bring together.”

A wholly owned subsidiary of Glanbia PLC, Glanbia Nutritionals has a presence in 19 countries, and sells its proteins, custom nutrient premixes, cheese, bioactives, plant-based nutrition ingredients, flavors and micronutrients in over 130 countries into mainstream food and beverage, sports nutrition, clinical nutrition, infant nutrition, supplements, personal care and animal nutrition markets.

The deal is the latest in a string of acquisitions for parent company Glanbia, which acquired weight management brand SlimFast for a reported $340 million (300 million Euros) in 2018; Dutch sports nutrition brand Body & Fit and superfood supplement brand Amazing Grass in 2017; and nutrition bar brand thinkThin in 2015.

Revenues at Glanbia Nutritionals declined 0.6% in constant currency in 2018, while EBITA rose 4% to €111.8m.