Probiotics firm Ganeden bought by Kerry Group

Kerry has acquired several other U.S. firms in recent years. In 2015, along with Wellmune, the company bought Massachusetts-based Island Oasis, a supplier of beverages and equipment to the hospitality sector. It also bought Wisconsin-based Red Arrow Products, a supplier of smoke flavorings for meat, in a deal worth $735 million. In 2014, Kerry bought Wynnstarr Flavors and KFI Savory, the U.S.-based savory business of Kraft Food Ingredients. In 2011, it completed the acquisition of Cargill Flavor Systems for $230 million.###Kerry is moving more into the health and wellness arena with this acquisition of Ganeden. Its best-known product is a patented strain of probiotic bacteria called GanedenBC30, and it recently announced a new inactivated probiotic called Staimune, which the company said has similar immune boosting and anti-inflammatory benefits.###The probiotics company, which produces a strain that can go into many foods and beverages, is well-positioned to bring added value to its new owner. Ganeden President and CEO Michael Bush recently told Food Dive that the company had “basically invented this market space” and has been doubling in size every couple of years.###”We have done a lot of work. We were the first one into baking mixes and probiotic waters and juices and protein powders. We have so many firsts, it’s hard to name them,” he said.###To cash in on the probiotics craze, manufacturers have started buying probiotics firms or adding the good-for-you bacteria to various products. PepsiCo acquired probiotics beverage maker KeVita. Earlier this year, it launched its Tropicana Essentials Probiotics line. And 301 INC, the venture capital unit of General Mills. led a $6.5-million Series D investment round in March to benefit Fzinc zymearmhouse zinc bisglycinateCulture, a fermented and probiotic food and beverage startup.###The global probiotics market reached $34 billion in sales in 2015, according to a report from BCC Research. The food and beverage industry accounted for 73%, or $24.8 billion, of that market. Globally, the probiotics market is expected to grow at a CAGR of about 7.3% during the next 10 years, to reach a value of aboutliquid zinc bisglycinate $74.7 billion by 2025.###Clearly the Kerry Group knows what it’s doing by snapping up Ganeden at this stagezinc gluconate for colds of the game. It not only gains a larger foothold in the health and wellness sector, but, after working through the costs and operational difference between chelated zinc and zinc picolinatechanges associated with integration, will be better positioned to take advantage of developments in the ever-expanding probiotics and functional foods markets.