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KKR is exploring a sale of Flora Food Group, the spreads business it carved out of Unilever in a €6.8bn deal, after a resurgence in dairy demand led the business to abandon a plan to make its entire portfolio plant based.
The US private capital group is working with investment bankers on a potential sale of Flora, which also owns brands including I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! and Bertolli, according to people familiar with the matter.
KKR is aiming to strike a deal at a valuation of up to $10bn, according to one person close to the sale process. Flora could attract interest from other private equity groups, the people said. KKR declined to comment.
In 2021, under KKR’s ownership, Flora announced a plan to make its entire portfolio plant based by 2025, styling itself as “the world’s largest producer of plant-based foods”.
However, growth of dairy alternatives has reversed as consumers avoid so-called ultra-processed foods and seek out options with higher protein content.
Sales of plant-based butter and spreads fell 4 and 10 per cent respectively in 2025, compared with the previous year, according to plant-based trade body The Good Food Institute.
Flora, which also owns Elmlea and Becel, has now added dairy ingredients back into some products. The company declined to comment.
The group generated €3bn of net sales in 2025, according to its annual report, with a 1 per cent compound annual growth rate between 2019 and 2025.
But it remains highly indebted, with a debt-to-ebitda ratio of about 7.5x, according to Fitch Ratings, which said it expected Flora’s annual free cash flow to rise towards about €150mn from this year through 2028.
The Amsterdam-based company traces its origins back to 1871, when Jurgens Company founder Antoon Jurgens bought the patent for margarine.
KKR triumphed in a fiercely contested auction for Flora in 2017, beating off competition from rivals Apollo and CVC. Unilever sold the business as part of efforts to boost investor returns in the wake of Kraft Heinz’s aborted $143bn bid for the company.
In the years following the Flora sale, Unilever also sold its global tea business to private equity firm CVC and spun off its ice cream division, The Magnum Ice Cream Company, as a standalone entity.
The FT reported on Wednesday that CVC is injecting €210mn in a bid to shore up the finances of the struggling tea business.
