Colman’s Mustard has been put up for sale by Unilever, as the FTSE 100 group moves to head off competition concerns ahead of the planned merger of its food division with the American spice giant McCormick.

Bankers from Rothschild have been hired to handle the sale, which was first reported by Sky News.

Under the terms of Unilever’s spin off of its food business, Colman’s and other major Unilever brands such as Marmite were due to move into McCormick as part of a deal creating a £48bn giant. Colman’s will now be sold before the transaction completes, while the rest of the food division is still expected to transfer to the US group. Unilever announced the combination of Unilever Foods with McCormick at the end of March, and the deal is expected to close in mid 2027, subject to McCormick shareholder approval and regulatory clearances.

The mustard pot is the sticking point. McCormick already owns French’s Mustard, and Unilever’s advisers had feared that adding Colman’s to the same portfolio would create a mustard monopoly, handing regulators ammunition to block the wider deal.

“A decision has been taken to market the Colman’s brand and assets to potential buyers in order to proactively seek to address potential competition concerns from the planned combination of Unilever Foods and McCormick,” a Unilever spokesman said. “Discussions are ongoing and the operations continue as usual.”

The Competition and Markets Authority in the UK and the Federal Trade Commission in the US are both set to scrutinise the merger. Companies facing monopoly concerns are regularly forced to carve out and sell parts of their businesses to allay regulatory fears, and the Colman’s disposal follows that well worn playbook.

For the brand itself, the carve out could amount to a reprieve. Selling Colman’s to McCormick alongside the rest of the food division had drawn criticism from experts, who said it was a “shame” that heritage brands were to be owned by US conglomerates. The separate sale means the English mustard could remain in Britain if a domestic buyer comes forward.

Colman’s has been under British ownership throughout its 212 year history. The business was founded in 1814 by Jeremiah Colman, a flour miller who began processing mustard seed at a watermill in Bawburgh, Norfolk. The famous bull’s head logo, symbolising the mustard’s fiery strength and its pairing with British beef, was introduced later by a member of the Colman family, and the brand won a Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria in 1866.

The mustard was owned by Reckitt and Colman, the former UK consumer goods giant, before Unilever acquired the brand in 2005. It is also closely associated with Norwich City FC, whose canary yellow strip matches Colman’s branding; the mustard maker sponsored the club in the 1990s.

The disposal is the latest reshaping of Unilever’s food interests as it slims down ahead of the McCormick tie up. The group recently agreed to sell its Graze snacks brand to Candy Kittens in a £36m deal, part of a broader restructuring of its portfolio. McCormick, for its part, has history in the UK market: the US group previously made a takeover approach for Premier Foods, an offer the British company rejected as significantly undervaluing the business.

For prospective buyers, the auction offers something rare: a household name with more than two centuries of heritage, a Royal Warrant dating back to Queen Victoria, and a place on Sunday dinner tables across the country. Who ends up holding the pot, and whether the buyer is British, will now be watched almost as closely as the merger itself.

Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.

The stock hit an intraday high of Rs 576.85 on the NSE, up Rs 65.7, or 12.8%, from its previous close of Rs 511.15.

In an exchange filing dated August 27, Tejas Networks said it had received a “Letter of Intent” from TCS to supply RAN equipment, accessories and installation materials for BSNL’s 4G network.

The proposed project covers 18,685 sites and is valued at Rs 1,537 crore. A detailed purchase order for the contract would be issued by TCS to the company in due course, Tejas Networks added in the filing.

In May 2025, TCS had secured an add-on purchase order worth Rs 2,903.22 crore from BSNL for deploying 18,685 4G network sites. Under the order, TCS was tasked with planning, engineering, supply, installation, testing, commissioning and annual maintenance of the sites.

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The latest order is part of TCS’s broader role in BSNL’s indigenous 4G rollout. In May 2023, TCS, in partnership with the government’s Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), secured a Rs 15,000-crore contract from BSNL to deploy an end-to-end indigenous 4G network.

Tejas Networks share price

Over the past month, the stock climbed 12.75%, comfortably outpacing its benchmark’s 1.68% gain. Tejas Networks’ free-float market capitalisation stood at Rs 4,641.57 crore, while its face value was Rs 10.

Tejas Networks Q1 results

Tejas Networks’ Q1 FY27 performance showed strong revenue growth but continued pressure on profitability. Revenue rose 99.1% year-on-year to Rs 402.16 crore from Rs 201.98 crore a year earlier. However, the company reported a net loss of Rs 202.24 crore, compared with a loss of Rs 193.87 crore in the year-ago quarter. Its operating EBITDA loss stood at Rs 91.39 crore.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

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