By Lauren Thomas, David Benoit and Ben Dummett

Unilever, the maker of Dove deodorant and Hellman's mayonnaise, is in talks to separate its food business and combine it with spice maker McCormick.

Both companies confirmed the talks Friday after The Wall Street Journal reported them a day earlier.

The major strategy shift by Unilever would continue a trend of consumer conglomerates streamlining their businesses and would leave U.K.-based Unilever focused on beauty, personal-care products and home.

McCormick has a market value of around $14.8 billion. Unilever's is close to $140 billion and its food business, which also houses brands including Knorr bouillons and seasoning, could be worth tens of billions of dollars.

An all-stock deal could come within weeks, assuming the talks don't fall apart, people familiar with the matter said. The exact structure couldn't be learned.

Maryland-based McCormick, known by its red-capped bottled spices and rectangular tins, also owns brands including French's yellow mustard, Old Bay seasoning and Cholula hot sauce. It is set to report its first-quarter results on March 31.

Consumer companies were one of the last remaining sectors featuring sprawling conglomerates and many have unveiled plans to unwind those structures in recent years.

Unilever has been exploring various deals in the past several years. It made unsolicited approaches for GlaxoSmithKline's consumer-health unit in 2021, but backed off the idea the following year. It spun off its ice cream business, now known as Magnum Ice Cream, last year. That company has a market value of around $8 billion and houses brands including Breyers, Ben & Jerry's and Talenti gelato.

Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Unilever was considering separating its food unit.

Unilever Chief Executive Fernando Fernandez has signaled the company is focused on its beauty and personal-care unit, and said in December it was eyeing small "bolt-on" acquisitions in the space.

"Transformational acquisitions are off the table. So we are not looking at that at this stage," Fernandez said at the time.

Trian Fund Management's Nelson Peltz joined Unilever's board in 2022 after the hedge fund took a big stake in the company. The activist investor was previously a director at Unilever rival Procter & Gamble.

Peltz has a record of pushing for splits and reconfigurations of sprawling conglomerates. His firm helped orchestrate the merger and eventual separation of chemical giants Dow and Dupont and helped streamline General Electric. It also unsuccessfully lobbied for PepsiCo to separate its food and beverage businesses.

Write to Lauren Thomas at lauren.thomas@wsj.com, David Benoit at David.Benoit@wsj.com and Ben Dummett at ben.dummett@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Hellmann's mayonnaise was misspelled as Hellman's in "Unilever in Talks to Separate Food Business and Combine It With McCormick" at 6:42 p.m. ET on March 19 and one update.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 20, 2026 07:12 ET (11:12 GMT)

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