M&A activity snapshot
Food manufacturing M&A turned up sharply in early 2026. Capstone Partners counted 40 food transactions through March 3, 2026, a 66.7% increase over the prior-year period. The bank frames this as normalization after 2025, when consumer-industry deal volume fell 18.9%.
Branded producers are driving the rebound. Branded food M&A more than tripled (+210% YOY) year to date, and 67.7% of branded targets sat in better-for-you, high-protein, international, or sustainability categories. Under NAICS, this page covers subsector 311, Food Manufacturing, and the beverage side of subsector 312.
Large-cap deal value in 2025 came mostly from two public-company acquisitions. Baker Tilly Capital noted that TreeHouse Foods and WK Kellogg Co represented most of 2025's U.S. food and beverage deal value. Investindustrial completed its acquisition of TreeHouse, a private-brands snacking and beverage manufacturer, at a total enterprise value of $2.9 billion on February 11, 2026.
Who is buying
Strategics lead. Strategic buyers made up 65% of food transactions through early 2026, and private strategic acquisitions rose 90% year over year. Large CPG companies are both sellers and buyers: they shed slower brands and then buy smaller, faster-growing ones.
Private equity is building platforms. Sponsor deals rose from 11 to 14 year over year, and fund managers formed six new platforms and made eight add-ons. Named 2026 sponsor deals include Arbor Investments' purchase of Furlani Foods, a frozen bread maker that also runs private-label manufacturing.
Co-manufacturing has its own buyer set. Nonantum Capital Partners acquired MSI Express, a co-packer with 15 locations in six states and one of the largest food co-manufacturers in the country. Platforms like this buy capacity, certifications, and brand-owner contracts rather than consumer brands.
What buyers look for
Category position comes first. Buyers pay for exposure to protein, clean-label, and international flavors. A Cornell study found GLP-1 users' households cut grocery spending by 5.3% within six months, with savory snacks hit hardest, so buyers discount portfolios tied to calorie-dense snacking.
For private-label and co-manufacturing plants, the thesis is volume and contracts. Store brands reached a record $282.8 billion in 2025, and their dollar share rose from 19.1% to 21.3% over five years. Buyers check capacity utilization, line flexibility, contract length with brand owners, and how much volume sits with one big-box retailer.
Diligence also goes deep on trade spend. Baker Tilly flags trade-spend accruals and promotional ROI as core diligence items for consumer packaged goods brands, because poorly managed promotions can hide margin erosion.
What makes a strong company
Food-safety compliance is a gating item. FSMA's Preventive Controls rule requires covered facilities to keep a written food safety plan with a hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls. Meat and poultry plants under USDA inspection face a parallel test: a federal grant of inspection requires a hazard analysis and a validated HACCP plan.
Traceability is the next test. FDA moved the Food Traceability Rule compliance date to July 20, 2028, and covered firms must produce records within 24 hours of an FDA request. Plants that already capture lot-level data are easier to integrate.
A company that commands interest typically shows:
- A current GFSI-benchmarked certificate, such as SQF, which GFSI recognizes as a benchmarked scheme, or BRCGS, with clean audit and recall history.
- No single retailer or brand-owner customer holding an outsized share of revenue, and written co-manufacturing agreements with volume terms.
- Documented capacity utilization with room to add shifts or lines without new buildings.
- A record of passing input-cost increases through to customers.
- For branded producers, sell-through velocity that holds without heavy promotion.
Valuation and deal structure
Disclosed food multiples come mostly from large deals. Refresco paid $1.2 billion, or 11.6x EV/EBITDA, for SunOpta, a maker of branded and private-label plant-based beverages. McCormick's March 2026 merger with Unilever's Food business carried a $44.8 billion enterprise value at 13.8x EV/EBITDA.
Those figures describe large companies, not a typical owner-run plant. Food-specific lower-middle-market multiples are not published by the sources reviewed here. As a cross-sector proxy, GF Data's lower-middle-market manufacturing deals averaged 5.8x TEV/EBITDA in H1 2025. Baker Tilly reports food and beverage multiples have softened from 2021-2022 highs, with beverage and snack companies keeping the strongest relative multiples in its index.
Structure follows the risk. Earnouts tied to retailer listings or contract renewals, and seller rollover equity in sponsor deals, are common market tools. The sources above do not quantify their use in food deals, so treat them as patterns to expect, not standard terms.
Outlook
Expect branded M&A to stay active through 2027. Capstone expects pressure on fund managers to return capital and deploy dry powder to accelerate branded deals through 2026, and large CPG companies keep pruning portfolios. Private-label and co-manufacturing capacity should stay in demand while store-brand share keeps rising.
The main swing factors are GLP-1 adoption, tariff-driven input costs, and the 2028 traceability deadline. Owners who certify, document traceability, and diversify customers before a sale give buyers fewer reasons to discount.
Own a food or beverage manufacturing business and want a market-data starting point? Run the valuation tool or see the broader manufacturing M&A picture. See also: why vertical-specific buyers outperform generalists in outbound.