Reckitt Benckiser has done spectacularly well in getting $4.2 billion for its unwanted foods business, whose three main brands are French’s mustard, Frank’s Red Hot sauces and Cattlemen’s barbecue sauces. These are probably not that familiar to British consumers, but they are big names in the United States, where the business has a headquarters in New Jersey and a manufacturing plant in Missouri.
North America apparently accounts for 30 per cent of global mustard sales. The buyer, therefore, is a US company, McCormick, probably best known here for last year’s tilt at Premier Foods, the Mr Kipling cakes business that has had its fair shares of woes in recent years. Some investors probably wish the offer had been successful.
As it is, McCormick will have