Highlights
- NewPrinces Group has signed an agreement to acquire Carrefour Italy for approximately €1 billion.
- Carrefour Italy will continue to operate under the Carrefour brand under a license agreement during a transitional period.
- After the acquisition, NewPrinces Group's pro-forma consolidated turnover will reach approximately €6.9 billion.
NewPrinces Group has announced that it has signed a binding agreement to acquire Carrefour Italy for an enterprise value of approximately €1 billion (£870 million).
NewPrinces Group is a specialised food and beverage company with a global supply network offering a wide range of branded and private label products across the UK and Europe.
Formerly known as Newlat Food, the group was rebranded as NewPrinces Group following its acquisition of UK firm Princes Limited in 2024. Its portfolio includes well-known brands such as Princes, Napolina, Delverde, Branston (beans), Flora, and more.
The group said the transaction – subject to regulatory clearances – forms part of its broader strategic plan for growth and vertical integration, aimed at reinforcing its presence in the Italian market and accelerating the convergence between the industrial sector and its distribution network.
With the acquisition of Carrefour Italy, NewPrinces becomes the second-largest Italian F&B group by revenue and the leading F&B operator in terms of employment, with 13,000 direct employees in Italy and over 18,000 worldwide, in addition to a further 11,000 people engaged in ancillary activities provided by external partners.
“With this transaction, we are taking a decisive step towards vertical integration between production and distribution, strengthening our ability to create value along the entire supply chain,” Angelo Mastrolia, chairman of NewPrinces Group, said.
“Our ambition is clear: to build a sustainable, solid and long-term model that can offer concrete benefits to customers, employees, suppliers and shareholders alike. We are ready to embark on a new phase of development for NewPrinces Group, anchored in strong foundations and guided by a bold vision for the future.”
As part of the transaction, Carrefour will reinvest €237.5 million as a one-off contribution to Carrefour Italy to support its industrial relaunch and operational continuity.
NewPrinces has committed to investing, at closing, which is expected by the end of the third quarter of this year, €200 million in development initiatives, logistics innovation and brand renewal.
Carrefour Italy operates a multi-format network of 1,188 stores, including 41 hypermarkets, 315 supermarkets, 820 convenience stores and 12 cash & carry outlets, and generated gross sales of €4.2bn in 2024, representing approximately 4 per cent of the Carrefour Group’s total sales.
After a recovery period from 2020 to 2022, Carrefour Italy recorded a decline in sales in 2024, along with negative recurring operating income and net free cash flow, in a particularly challenging economic and competitive environment.
The company will continue to operate under the Carrefour brand under a license agreement during a transitional period.
NewPrinces said Carrefour Italy's network of stores, spread across densely populated regions, represents a commercial infrastructure of strategic value and an ideal channel for expanding its offering and building consumer loyalty.
NewPrinces generated sales of €2.8bn in 2024. Following the completion of the acquisition, its pro-forma consolidated turnover will reach approximately €6.9 billion, and the group expects to surpass €7 billion in revenue by the end of 2026.