When the UK’s Unilever sold its sauces, condiments and seasonings business for USD 42.7bn to US conglomerate McCormick earlier this year, it captured two of the strongest currents in the consumer sector.

First, it showed the increasing appetite US buyers have for European brands. Second, it underscored how European conglomerates are undertaking a growing wave of corporate carveouts that is putting prized assets on the market.

Both trends helped push US buyers to spend a record USD 61.28bn on European consumer assets for the year to date, according to Mergermarket data.

To be sure, the McCormick-Unilever food deal – which gives the US buyer brands such as Hellman’s mayonnaise, Knorr’s sauces and bouillon, and British breakfast staple Marmite – accounted for about 70% of that dollar volume. Deal count, meanwhile, is running below last year’s pace, with 105 deals announced versus 124 deals worth USD 32.75bn over the same period in 2025.

Advisors nonetheless said the Unilever transaction reflects broader trends shaping the market, including companies’ efforts to build scale across borders and corporate decisions to divest non-core businesses.

“As I think about the big consumer companies, what I’m talking to them about right now is really cross-border dealmaking,” an investment banker said, noting that global scale is becoming increasingly important as input costs rise. “The bigger you are, the more negotiating power you have with suppliers and the better you can hedge commodity prices and things like that.”

Source: Mergermarket, data correct as at 15-Sep-26

Adding European growth 

A key part of the investment thesis is the potential to unlock further growth by bringing European brands into the US, where acquirers can plug them into established distribution and commercial networks, an M&A advisor said.

At the same time, consumer companies on both sides of the Atlantic are sharpening their focus on core businesses and divesting non-core operations, creating acquisition opportunities for strategic buyers and financial sponsors alike.

The UK has emerged as the biggest beneficiary of those trends. The country accounts for USD 56.1bn of cross-border deal value across 38 transactions this year, driven overwhelmingly by the Unilever sale.

Europe’s second-largest economy stands out as a target for US buyers for both financial and cultural reasons. UK consumer companies are trading at attractive levels from both a currency and valuation perspective, according to the investment banker, while similarities between the two consumer markets can make British businesses a more natural fit for US acquirers, the advisor said.

“UK companies may not be as cutting edge today as some US companies, but they do tend to be more similar in terms of how they go to market,” the advisor added. “Social selling and TikTok Shop are still much smaller in the UK than in the US, but they’re emerging in a way you don’t really see across the rest of Europe.”

Timing is also working in buyers’ favor, particularly from a regulatory standpoint, according to a lawyer who typically advises publicly traded companies on acquisitions. The regulatory window remains favorable, particularly in consumer sectors where competitive concerns tend to be less pronounced, and scrutiny is more likely to focus on national security considerations, the lawyer added.

“If there’s an asset that you’re interested in pursuing, I would be pursuing that in the next couple of months,” the lawyer said.

Source: Mergermarket, data correct as at 15-Sep-26

Attractive valuations

Beyond food and beverage, which accounts for the largest share of transactions, cross-border activity is also reaching into slower-growth areas such as fashion and retail, where the search for value is shaping both consumer behavior and M&A.

eBay’s USD 1.4bn acquisition of UK secondhand fashion platform Depop in February is one example, expanding the San Jose, California-based company’s exposure to the resale market.

“With the consumer today, price is important, but value supersedes price. That’s different than simply being inexpensive,” another investment banker said.

Corporate buyers are also keeping a close eye on price, with more attractive valuations helping fuel M&A beyond the UK.

Multiples across Europe have come down from what two advisors described as “super-high” levels in recent years.

Kering, for example, paid a reported EUR 3.5bn for luxury fragrance house Creed in 2023, equivalent to roughly 14x the company’s more than EUR 250m in annual sales.

Valuations are not expected to return to those peak levels anytime soon.

“For transactions where you’re not seeing growth, it’s more difficult to sell a business for the price that maybe you could have achieved four or five years ago,” one advisor said, unless they are among the most sought-after assets.

Opportunities in beauty and wellness

Nestlé is among the European conglomerates creating opportunities through carve-outs and portfolio reshuffling. In July, the Swiss food group agreed to sell a 50% stake in its water and premium beverages business to US private equity firm Platinum Equity for USD 2.8bn, followed earlier this month by the USD 1bn sale of its mainstream vitamins business to Yellow Wood Partners.

French luxury group LVMH is also creating opportunities for buyers as it reshapes its brand portfolio, even as luxury remains a weak spot in the broader consumer sector. In May, it sold Marc Jacobs to a US joint venture formed by WHP Global and G-III Apparel Group amid a broader push to focus on profitability. LVMH is also exploring divestitures of other brands, including Make Up For Ever and Fresh.

Beauty, by contrast, continues to grow globally, including in Europe, and is emerging as a key source of cross-border dealmaking.

Spain’s beauty conglomerate Puig is one company that could be active in M&A, after talks to sell to Estée Lauder collapsed in May following months of negotiations. Demands from Charlotte Tilbury, in whose cosmetic brand Puig owns a majority stake, and disagreements over valuation and governance between the two family-controlled beauty groups scuppered the deal, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The next wave of US acquisitions in Europe could emerge in the health and wellness space, including in vitamins, functional foods, and consumer health technology.

“There’s certainly interest in areas like full-body scans and at-home consumer testing,” one advisor said. “We’re seeing quite a lot of interest there.”

One company to watch is privately owned, California-based Prenuvo, which offers full-body scans designed to detect health issues early. It could increasingly look to Europe for growth as it scales. The venture-backed company opened its first European location last November, highlighting the potential for fast-growing US consumer health companies to expand further in the region and, over time, potentially pursue acquisitions.