The Food and beverage M&A Event of the Year 2022: Super combination, breaking the game and reborn from Nirvana

After more than a year, Nai Snow's tea will be Lele tea in the bag, "the communication between the two sides is very happy, and the progress is smooth." Guo Sihan, deputy general manager of Lele Tea, said this [3].

Founded in 2016, Lele Tea entered the vision of consumers with its two major Internet celebrities, "dirty tea" and "dirty bag", in the early stage of development. The business model is similar to the tea background color of Nai Xue, and they adhere to the direct marketing model, focusing on the product line of "milk tea + soft European buns", and are committed to providing value-added services of "third space".

Nai Xue's tea said that Lele Tea is a very excellent brand, especially in the East China region has better brand strength and consumer cognition.

According to the announcement, Nai Xue's tea will empower Lele Tea in terms of store expansion, supply chain, digitalization and automation, and internal management, helping Lele Tea to further grow. At the same time, the acquisition will help make up for the deficiency of Nai Xue's tea in East China, reduce the cost of future store expansion and operation, and optimize the competitive environment of the industry.

The transaction is the reshaping and integration of the tea drinking head army, marking the official end of the high-end tea "Three kingdoms", and the new market pattern is about to open. 2023, where will the new tea drinkers go?

Deal size: 12.3 billion yuan

Disclosure date: October 2022

On October 25, 2022, China Resources Beer announced that it would acquire 55.19% of the equity of Jinsha Liquor. It is reported that the acquisition involved a total of 12.30 billion yuan, including about 1.03 billion yuan of capital increase to Guizhou Jinsha Liquor and about 11.27 billion yuan of share purchase, which was completed on January 10, 2023.

This is one of the largest mergers and acquisitions in the Maotai-flavored liquor industry in recent years, and from the announcement of the acquisition to the completion of the delivery, China Resources Beer only took more than two months, all of which stems from the liquor layout that China Resources began as early as 2018.

In February 2018, China Resources invested in Fenjiu and became its second largest shareholder. In four years, it acquired Jingzhi and Golden Seed successively, plus the Jinsha Liquor Industry acquired this time. China Resources has shown its ambition in the field of liquor, and has dabble in a variety of flavors such as Luzhou-flavor, sauce-flavor, and sesame flavor, forming a relatively complete product structure of multiple types and multiple price ranges.

Breaking the boundaries may be the only way to find a new growth track, which is one of the important reasons for China Resources to aggressively enter the baijiu track.

The double enabling mode of "white + beer" can not only expand the product diversity of CR beer, but also empower liquor to open up the national market with its own beer sales channels, breaking the traditional regionalism of liquor. The entry of China Resources Beer will also open a broader development space for the Sands wine industry.

In the future, how will China Resources Beer write a chapter in the wine industry? With the ability of China Resources, what kind of achievements can Jinsha Wine create?

Transaction size: $2.9 billion (equivalent to about 19.6 billion yuan)

Disclosure date: June 2022

In early June 2022, Mondelez International announced the acquisition of American organic nutrition energy bar manufacturer Clif Bar&Company for $2.9 billion, the acquisition of brands including Clif, Luna and Clif Kid, it is reported that the deal has been completed in August 2022.

Clif Bar&Company was founded in 1992, focusing on the field of nutrition and organic food and beverage, with the concept of "creating a healthy and sustainable food system", to provide users with low-calorie energy bars and meal replacement bars.

Since 2018, Mondelez International has been adjusting its strategic mix through "buy buy buy", and the acquisition of Clif is its ninth deal since 2018. The acquisition will expand Mondelez's global snack bar business, which also includes U.S. refrigerated snack brand Perfect Snacks and U.K. 's nutritional food brand Grenade, to $1 billion, Mondelez said.

Commenting on the acquisition, Mondelez CEO Drik Van de Put said: "As the company continues to expand its high-growth snack business, these transactions further drive Mondelez's commitment to lead the future of snack food by winning in the chocolate, cookie and baked goods categories. [4]"

As Gen Z consumers pay more attention to healthy snacks, the energy bar market is expanding. According to Euromonitor data, as of the statistical period 2022, the total retail value of the global protein/energy bar market is close to $7 billion.

Of course, Mondelez isn't the only company eyeing the energy bar business. In the energy bar subdivision circuit also occupied Mars, General Mills, Kellogg and other international snack giants, Mondelez's increase will also intensify the competition between snack giants.