Our Story

Building Valeo Foods Group

Valeo Foods is a fast-growing international consumer foods business, generating annual sales of more than €1.2 billion. We have grown our business through acquisition, integration and a relentless focus on innovation in everything we do.

We are Growing

We are growing a portfolio of leading brands in key categories including Snacking & Sweet Treats, Confectionery, Health & Wellness, Beverages, Baking & Meal Ingredients, Beverages and Food Service.
We pursue a ‘buy and build’ expansion strategy that involves acquiring businesses with leading brands in attractive, stable and growing categories within the consumer food sectors. We integrate these brands and businesses into our existing operating platforms and look to grow them through innovative product development and new product design.

The Story so far

Since its formation in 2010, Valeo Foods has successfully completed 19 acquisitions across Ireland, the UK and Continental Europe.

2010

The Beginning

Our story began in 2010 with the acquisition and merger of Origin Foods and Batchelors, two of Ireland’s most successful branded consumer food companies. Origin Foods had extensive manufacturing facilities, a client base including major retail, bakery and foodservice channel leaders and a portfolio of market leading brands including Odlums, Shamrock and Roma.

In addition to its iconic canned vegetables brand, the Batchelors business also included a number of other well known household brands such as Erin, Sqeez, Amigo and Lustre.

Odlums flour, Shamrock chopped walnuts and Roma chopped tomatoes tin

2011

Jacob Fruitfield acquisition

In 2011 we acquired the leading Irish consumer food group, Jacob Fruitfield and its iconic portfolio of branded products including Jacob's biscuits, Fruitfield jams and marmalades, Chef sauces and Silvermints confectionary. Jacob's is the number one biscuit brand in Ireland with a heritage stretching back to 1859.

Visit Jacob's website

2014

Rowse Honey acquired

2014 saw our first acquisition outside of Ireland with the purchase of the UK’s market leader in spreads and the country’s best known honey producer, Rowse Honey.

Visit Rowse Honey website

Rowse Honey is a world leader in honey products and a major provider of pure maple syrups, lemon curd and luxury dessert chocolate sauces.

2015

Three Businesses Acquired -

Robert Roberts, Kelkin and Balconi

2015 was a year of significant growth with the acquisition of three new businesses. In February we completed the purchase of Irish based tea and coffee maker, Robert Roberts, which also included Findlater Wine & Spirits. Also joining the Valeo Food Group in February 2015 was Ireland’s number one health and wellness brand, Kelkin.

In May 2015, we completed our first acquisition in continental Europe with the purchase of leading Italian based food producer, Balconi, which specialises in the production of sponge based cake products, wafers and biscuits which are sold across Europe and the world.

Robert Roberts Green Tea, Balconi Trancetto and Kelkin Peanut Butter

2017

Two acquisitions

We completed the acquisition of Raisio Plc’s confectionery division which includes a portfolio of established, iconic and growing confectionery brands such as Fox’s Glacier Mints, XXX Mints, Poppets, and Pedro. We also added our second Italian food business; Dolciaria Val d'Enza, which specialises in the production of dessert products including tarts, cakes and pies.

Visit Big Bear’s website

Tradition & innovation meet in an Italian brand that stands for quality & authenticity for consumers.

2018

Tangerine Confectionery
Acquired

We completed the acquisition of Tangerine Confectionery which has an extensive range of iconic UK sweet brands such as Barratt, Taverners, Jameson’s and Princess.

Visit Tangerine's Confectionery website

2019

Two businesses acquired

2019 was another year of significant growth with the acquisitions of two new businesses; one of the leading manufacturers and distributers of hand cooked potato crisps, Kettle Foods, and the world's leading Christmas pudding producer, Matthew Walker.

Visit Kettle Foods website

Kettle Foods was founded with the aim of providing delicious, high quality, naturally sourced products.

2020

IAG Acquired

2020 closed with the acquisition of IAG (It’s All Good), the leading producer of premium tortilla snacks in the UK including the award winning Manomasa range of premium chips.

2021

Schluckwerder acquisition

At the beginning of this year we announced the acquisition of Schluckwerder, the leading German producer of specialist high quality confectionery, including the 175-year-old ‘Lübecker marzipan’ brands, Erasmi and Carstens. These brands, which have been distinguished by EU protected geographic designation status since 1996, will sit proudly alongside many of our existing iconic heritage brands.

Visit Carstens' website