Turkish food group Yildiz Holding has formed a new London-based company by combining its biscuit, chocolate, and confectionery businesses.
The move is aimed at expanding its global presence and improving its competitiveness in the global food industry.
The new firm is named as Pladis And Yildiz plans to list it on the London stock exchange by 2020.
Pladis will combine unites the group's reputed brands Godiva, a chocolate brand worldwide, McVitie's, a biscuit brand in the UK an Europe, and Ulker, a biscuits and confectionery brand in Turkey and Middle East.
Pladis CEO, Cem Karakas said: "We have significant growth ambitions for pladis with the aim to outperform the category standard year-on-year.
"This is supported by our capital position and the strength of our manufacturing as one of only two companies in the world that produce such a broad range of biscuits and confectionery.
"As one global family, we can be more agile, allowing us to innovate around our products and develop more brand synergies - which are already benefitting our business."
With annual revenues of $5.2bn, Pladis will own 36 factories in 13 countries and will have an employee strength of 26,000 people.
It will operate on a regional basis, with each region responsible for the manufacturing and commercial activities of the full pladis brand portfolio.
Yildiz chairman Murat Ulker said: "Establishing pladis is the first step in realizing the long-term strategy of Yildiz Holding. We are bringing together some of the world's best loved brands and combining their 350 years of experience to form a new family company."
Karakas was quoted The Wall Street Journal as saying that the new entity would enable brands to gain from shared research-and-development capabilities.
Yildiz Vice Chairman Ali ülker said: "We believe it's time to sacrifice some of the brand equity."
