The king of kitchen cubes, the Spanish GB Foods (turnover of 758 million euros and over 2 employees) who had bought Star in 2007 through his company Gallina Blanca, concluded yet another major operation in recent days, with the acquisition of its major competitor, Continental Foods (division of the Campbell Soup Company, which had sold it in 2013 to the fund) which holds the liebig and Royco.
The deal was concluded after months of negotiations on the one hand by the investment fund CVC Capital Partners, owner of Continental Foods, on the other by GB Foods, on behalf of the Catalan family group Agroalimend. The amount of the operation, not communicated, should be around 900 million euros.
Continental, with a turnover of over 400 million euros, is ranked among the five most important players on the European market in the sector (stock cubes, soups and condiments). The Spanish group has factories throughout Europe as well as those in Italy, belonging to the historic Star brand.
Liebig's story dates back to the 800th century, when the German chemist Justus von Liebig invented meat extract first sold in jars and then transformed into mini-cubes, and which managed to feed entire generations of poor people who could not afford meat. Because from the very beginning the concentrate maintained its flavors and nutritional properties and soon spread rapidly in Germany and was almost immediately in demand and sold throughout Europe.
