The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of Brakes, the largest UK food distributor, by Sysco, the largest US food distributor. The Commission found that the takeover would not adversely affect competition in Europe. Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: "Consumers, hospitals, schools and other food-service customers must be able to rely on competition to deliver affordable prices and good service. Our investigation has confirmed that this would be the case also after the merger, so I am pleased that the Commission has been able to clear the takeover quickly." Both companies are full range distributors, delivering a broad variety of chilled, frozen and ambient food across all product categories and across all sectors of the foodservice industry. The Commission examined the effects of the merger in the areas of “delivered wholesale” distribution by full range suppliers to national and independent customers in the island of Ireland and concluded that the acquisition would raise no competition concerns. The transaction was examined under the normal merger review procedure. More information will be available on the competition website, in the public case register under the case number M.7986.
