Foreign groups" appetite for "British" brands grows There are few things more typically British than settling down to a cup of tea with milk and a digestive biscuit. But this week, McVitie's digestives and the milk division of Dairy Crest were swallowed up, respectively, by Turkey's Yildiz and Germany's Müller. And if the tea is Tetley, that has been in the hands of India's Tata for more than a decade. Be it Weetabix cereal, Gale's honey, Branston pickle, HP sauce, Ribena or Lucozade soft drinks, the larder of "British" brands owned by overseas businesses is expanding. According to a 2012 survey in the Grocer trade magazine based on Nielsen research, of the 150 biggest grocery brands in the UK, only 44 are home-owned. Since then the trend has accelerated. Martin Glenn, chief executive of United Biscuits, which makes McVitie's digestives, Jaffa Cakes, Carr's and Jacob's crackers, regards the magnetism of British brands to foreign buyers as a cause for celebration not concern. The reason why the UK has been so successful in the postcolonial era is our preponderance to open up and attract overseas buyers. We get the largest amount of investment in Europe - the opening up of Britain is our making," he says. But given the singularity of national tastes, why are foreign companies eating popular British food brands for lunch? Mr Glenn, who previously ran Walkers crisps (another British favourite in foreign ownership as it belongs to PepsiCo of the US), says that overseas companies are attracted by the heritage of British food brands and are keen to take advantage of "the institutionalised brand management that the UK is very good at." A second reason is that many of these brands already have roots in former British empire territories, making it easier to roll them out internationally. "A lot of the British brands have long existed in distant markets, often in Commonwealth territories," says John Spayne, co-founder of Spayne Lindsay & Co, the independent advisory firm. Lucozade is very well-established in parts of Africa, particularly Nigeria. When it was sold to [Japan's] Suntory, about a third of sales were in Africa, enjoying double-digit top-line growth. Thirdly, as Warren Ackerman, analyst at Société Générale, points out: "Many of these brands are fantastic at throwing off cash which compensates for their low growth." But the UK is far from unique in attracting overseas interest. FX (François-Xavier) de Mallmann, global co-head of consumer retail & healthcare at Goldman Sachs, says: "There are very few high-quality consumer goods assets available for purchase, so when they come up for sale - be that in the UK or in other countries - there tends to be significant interest for them." China's Bright Food group, which acquired Weetabix, also went to Italy to buy Salov Group, the producer of Filippo Berio olive oil, to Israel for a controlling stake in Tnuva, the country's largest food group and to France for wine merchant Diva Bordeaux. While experts say that China's overseas ambitions are primarily driven by acquiring sources of supply and skills for its domestic market, developed-market buyers seek diversification. Japanese companies, for example, are looking abroad to offset a declining domestic consumer market driven by an ageing population. Akeel Sachak, global head of consumer at Rothschild, who has advised on many UK food sales, says: "From a cultural perspective American and Asian buyers tend to feel most comfortable starting their forays in Europe in the UK, which is why the UK may seem to have been disproportionately affected by overseas acquisition of quintessential British brands." Irwin Simon, founder and chairman of Hain Celestial, a US health-focused food group that also owns the Linda McCartney brand, says that the company has invested $1bn in the UK since 2006 - its biggest investment in Europe. Hain Celestial, a US health-focused food group, has invested $1bn in the UK since 2006 - its biggest investment in Europe Hain bought Hartley's jam and Gale's honey businesses from Premier Foods in 2012 and last year acquired Tilda, the British-based basmati rice group. As foreign companies have increased their interest in British food brands, two of the country's biggest domestic consumer groups are eyeing expansion elsewhere. Unilever is ploughing ahead with acquisitions in emerging markets and personal-care products, while Associated British Foods, which owns brands including Kingsmill bread and Ovaltine hot drinks, is focused on growing its Primark retail operations. The rest of Britain's own food industry is split between a string of smaller companies and private equity groups, such as R&R ice cream, owned by France's PAI. For Trefor Griffith, partner at Grant Thornton, the raid on the British food larder indicates the UK's inability to exploit brands internationally but also signals the openness of British business - something that has long been apparent in other sectors, notably the car industry. Any British nationalist tempted to shed a tear over the McVitie's sale when they next dunk a digestive need not get too upset - United Biscuits has been in "foreign" hands since 2000, most recently under the American-French ownership of private equity groups Blackstone and PAI. New owners breathe life into childhood favourites Forget the madeleine in A la recherche du temps perdu. For many thousands of British consumers, it is foods such as Jaffa Cakes, chocolate Flakes and Hula Hoops that evoke memories of childhood, writes Alison Smith. But there is no need for a pang of regret at the news this week that Turkish group Yildiz is acquiring Twiglets and Penguins - brands deeply embedded in the national consciousness - as it buys United Biscuits for £2bn. It should be unnecessary to say this. After all, there has been much justified mockery of the French government's pledge in 2005 to defend national interests when it looked as though PepsiCo was interested in yoghurt group Danone. And it is not as though UK groups themselves do not buy much-loved brands overseas, as Unilever did when it acquired Ben & Jerry's ice cream in 2000. Yet the wailing when Kraft finally bought Cadbury for £11.7bn in 2010 suggests that some people still think it matters whether the owners of the products that dominate British palates are based in the domestic market. There was some legitimate criticism of the US food group, but it also faced unwarranted attacks on the basis that an alien intruder was somehow destroying an aspect of national life. Most consumers are not so silly. Research suggests that people care about brands rather less than the marketing profession would have us believe. Even when they do care, they know that many products with British owners are made overseas already. If they register a change to foreign ownership, it is likely to cause no more than a momentary sigh - provided that the products themselves do not change for the worse. Some M&A does turn nasty. But there is no particular overseas ownership reason why popular brands should lose their way. As with Yildiz, such cross-border deals are often predicated on selling more products across more geographical areas. So the chances are that change will be for the better. A brand unloved in its current home is in a worse place than one with a proud new owner keen to invest - wherever group headquarters happen to be.