Although Kerry is an established player in Europe’s food ingredients industry, Sheil said there are still some countries where it wants to strengthen its footprint, and acquisitions were on the agenda in order to expand its market share beyond the UK and Ireland, where much of its European activity has been concentrated, to in countries such as Spain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia.
"They [acquisitions] are a big part of Kerry's history and will be a big part of our future. We're always looking for acquisitions in certain market segments that we're large in already - the beverage and meat areas - but also ones that will enhance our technical capabilities, such as clean label flavours."
"One of the views is that Europe is a mature market but it's not from the standpoint that total consumption doesn't change but the renovation within the food and beverage market is massive," Sheil added.
"From natural, clean label, better for you, sugar reduction and calorie reduction, there's a lot of renovation in how to deliver great tasting products that are nutritionally optimised."
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