Calbee acquires Seabrook Crisps as it looks to expand in Europe

Japanese snack food maker Calbee has acquired British brand Seabrook Crisps as it aims to strengthen its position in Europe.

Calbee said it was drawn to Seabrook’s “iconic” brand of potato chips, which includes straight cut, crinkle cut and lattice variants. The brand’s crisp flavours include: sea salt and red wine vinegar, cream cheese and chives, and lamb and mint.

The deal was carried out through Calbee’s UK subsidiary, Calbee UK, which was founded in 2015, as the company looks to grow in the country’s snack market, Europe’s largest.

Calbee UK managing director Richard Robinson said: “This is an exciting development which will allow us to combine and further leverage the skills and brands of two ambitious players in the UK savoury snack market – building an even more dynamic, innovative and effective snack business going forward. We firmly believe it will prove to be good news for both business and the UK snack industry as a whole.”

He added: “This acquisition is good news for Calbee UK’s business aspirations and has been designed not for cost savings but to generate growth. Whilst wholly owned by Calbee UK, Seabrook will run separately as a business, sharing their expertise with Calbee and ours with them. Calbee intends to take time to properly understand the Seabrook business following the transfer of ownership of the business.”

“Seabrook is a dynamic company with a great history, tradition and first to market initiatives and so serves as a perfect complement to the young, ambitious, new business that is Calbee UK. Bringing them together is a powerful move to help further accelerate and expand Calbee UK’s position both in the UK and in Europe, which remains a key strategic priority for our business.”