Marmite is owned by Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer-goods company behind dozens of household names. That is the answer today. The reason the question keeps being asked is that it is about to change: in March 2026 Unilever agreed to sell its food business, with Marmite in it, to the American company McCormick. The deal is set to complete around mid-2027, and until it closes Marmite is still a Unilever brand.
So the honest, up-to-date answer is: Unilever owns it now, McCormick has agreed to buy it, and the handover has not happened yet.
Who owns it right now
Unilever. Marmite sits in Unilever’s food portfolio alongside the other big British store-cupboard names it owns, including Hellmann’s, Knorr, Bovril and Colman’s. It is still made where it has always been made, at the factory in Burton-on-Trent, from brewer’s yeast.
Who is buying it
McCormick and Company, the American firm best known on this side of the pond for spices and seasonings, the little jars in the back of the cupboard. On 31 March 2026, McCormick and Unilever announced that McCormick would acquire Unilever’s food business. The deal is worth roughly $45 billion, or about £33.5 billion in sterling, and is structured so that Unilever’s own shareholders end up holding a majority of the combined company, around 55 per cent.
It is a genuinely huge deal, and it sweeps up a lot of the British pantry in one go: Marmite, Bovril, Colman’s, Hellmann’s and Knorr all move under the same new American owner.
When does it actually change hands?
Not yet. The deal was agreed in March 2026 but has not completed. Completion is targeted for around the middle of 2027, subject to the usual regulatory approvals. Until that point, nothing about the ownership has changed in practice: Marmite remains a Unilever product, made in Burton, to the same recipe.
This is the bit the headlines tend to blur. “Marmite sold to the Americans” is a fair description of what has been agreed, but the sale is agreed, not closed, and the jar in your cupboard is still Unilever’s for now.
Does this change the jar?
On the evidence of how McCormick has handled its other heritage acquisitions, probably not much, at least not soon. The recipe, the name and the Burton factory are the things people worry about, and McCormick’s track record with brands like Schwartz in the UK is to leave the name and recipe alone. The full analysis of what the deal means, and what the precedents suggest, lives on our Marmite buyout hub.
Quick answers
Who owns Marmite? Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer-goods company. It has agreed to sell the brand to McCormick, but that deal has not yet completed.
Is Marmite being sold to an American company? Yes. In March 2026 Unilever agreed to sell its food business, including Marmite, to the American firm McCormick. Completion is expected around mid-2027.
Is Marmite still British? It is still made in Burton-on-Trent and, for now, still owned by Unilever. Ownership is set to pass to the American McCormick when the deal closes.
Has the McCormick deal happened yet? No. It was agreed in March 2026 and is expected to complete around the middle of 2027, subject to regulatory approval.
