McCormick sets priorities for next chapter

BOSTON — McCormick & Co., Inc. is preparing for its next chapter — one that includes the recently acquired Unilever Foods and a refined growth agenda.

In a presentation at the Barclays Global Consumer Conference in Boston on Sept. 9, Brendan Foley, president and chief executive officer of the Hunt Valley, Md.-based company, highlighted five key priorities behind McCormick’s strategy to deliver growth synergies.

First, the company intends to win where it leads by strengthening commercial execution and accelerating growth in key countries, including Brazil, France, Germany, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States, Foley said.

“We’ve assessed the key markets, the key categories and brands with the greatest opportunity and this is important for near-term revenue growth,” he said.

A second priority for McCormick is to bring the company’s brands to more homes globally by using the combined footprint and routes to market of McCormick and Unilever Foods to expand high-growth potential brands such as Maille and Cholula.

“There is significant white space for these brands, and we intend to pursue it,” Foley said.

He said a third priority will be pairing the flavor expertise, consumer insights, R&D and digital capabilities of McCormick and Unilever Foods with a goal of driving scalable innovation across the portfolio.

McCormick hopes to bring the company’s brands to more homes globally by using the combined footprint and routes to market of McCormick and Unilever Foods.

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| Photo: ©JAMMER GENE – STOCK.ADOBE.COM

Fourth, the company will seek to capture the global foodservice opportunity presented through the combination of McCormick and Unilever Foods’ complementary capabilities and networks. Foley said foodservice represents one of the biggest opportunities within the acquisition of Unilever, calling the geographic unlock “significant.”

“Unilever Food Solutions is already established in 75 countries where McCormick has limited or no foodservice presence in 51 of them,” he explained. “That gives us an immediate path to bring McCormick’s flavor capabilities into attractive new markets.”

The fifth and final priority for McCormick moving forward is to “strengthen our flavor capabilities and customer co-innovation to become an even stronger partner to leading and emerging food brands,” Foley said.

Foley said the combined capabilities will help McCormick capture the trends that support long-term growth. The opportunity is expected to develop in phases, he said.

“Year 1 will focus on strengthening, integrating and prioritizing the highest value opportunities,” he said. “Year 2, on scaling early wins and accelerating innovation. And Year 3, on delivering sustainably higher growth from a stronger combined platform and then continuing to build on this improved growth.”