Heinz, HP Foods to Merge
The UK's Competition Commission has provisionally cleared the acquisition by HJ Heinz Company of the HP Foods Group. Both Heinz and HP produce ketchup, brown sauce and barbecue sauce. Heinz also produces baked beans and canned pasta products, while HP branded baked beans and pasta products are currently produced by Premier Foods plc, under a license from HP.
"People still want to lose weight," said Don Montuori, publisher of Packaged Facts, "but they've lost their taste for extreme diets. They want to eat sensibly with a little indulgence."