Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, represented Groupe Lactalis in the acquisition by its US affiliate of Kraft Heinz’s Natural, Grated, Cultured and Specialty cheese businesses in the US, Grated cheese business in Canada, and the entire International Cheese business outside North America. The closing of the transaction is expected in the first half of 2021, subject to regulatory approvals.
With this acquisition, Lactalis will acquire a portfolio of iconic brands including Cracker Barrel, Breakstone’s, Knudsen, Polly-O, Athenos, and Hoffman’s. In addition Kraft Heinz will partner with Lactalis on a perpetual license for the Kraft and Velveeta brands in certain product segments.
Lactalis will acquire three Kraft Heinz production facilities and a distribution center in the US. Approximately 750 Kraft Heinz employees will be joining Lactalis.
Alongside Lactalis Legal Acquisitions Department (Laurent Schedeich, Contracts and Acquisitions General Counsel, and Gaëlle Breton, Acquisitions Legal Counsel) and Lactalis U.S. General Counsel (Pierre Lorieau), the Dentons team was led by Corporate partner Jean-Marc Grosperrin (Paris) in Europe and globally, and Corporate partner Kristina Beirne (New York) in the US. They were assisted by partner François Chateau.
This transaction is one of the most important deals of the year. It involved nine jurisdictions and some 40 Dentons lawyers around the world. Others on the team include:
US: Partners Katharina Babich, Dan Beale, Barry Cannaday, Steve Libowsky, David Metzger, Monica Richman, Timothy Santoli, Todd Silliman, Jason Silverman, Ryan Westhoff and Mike Zolandz ; Counsels Tara Bradley, Ausra Deluard and Mary Mathew ; Senior Managing Associates Erin Bass and Jeff Sivek, and Associates Nick Coffaro, Irina Fayman and Benjamin Fraimow.
FRANCE: Partners Emmanuelle van den Broucke and David Masson, Counsel Tanit Gendre and Associates Romain Picard and Chen Gu
CANADA: Partners Rick Scott, Mark Mahoney, Sandy Walker, Larry Nevsky and Meaghen Russel
AUSTRALIA: Partner Kym Livesley
CHINA: Senior Partner Nancy Sun
JAPAN: Partner Shinsuke Okamura of Midosuji LPC
KOREA: Senior Attorney John K. Min and Senior Managing Attorneys Young-Soo Choi and Andrew J. Park
MEXICO: Partner Amanda Valdez
PUERTO RICO: Partner Lizette Velez-Rive of Carvajal & Vélez-Rivé, PSC
