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Nestle’s Global Waters Business May Have Buyers

March 27, 2025

Originally set for a spinoff this year, the $3.7 billion (in sales) business, which includes Perrier and S.Pellegrino, reportedly is being eyed by PAI Partners, Bain Capital, Clayton Dubilier & Rice and KKR.

Dave Fusaro

Instead of a spinoff, Nestle’s global waters business may be for sale, and there are reports PAI Partners and Bain Capital are among the firms considering bidding for the $3.7 billion (in sales) business.

Bloomberg News, citing “people familiar with the matter,” said several financial firms had expressed an interest, and added Clayton Dubilier & Rice and KKR to that list. Their report said the business could be valued at about 5 billion euros ($5.38 billion).

None of the investment firms nor Nestle responded to Bloomberg’s request for comment.

Nestle, the world’s biggest food & beverage company, has been in reorganization for a while. The U.S. waters business – which includes brands Pure Life, Poland Spring, Ice Mountain and Deer Park — was sold in early 2021 to One Rock Capital Partners and Metropoulos & Co., which later merged it with Primo Water Corp.

The global reorganization was hastened with the September 2024 replacement of CEO Mark Schneider with Laurent Freixe. Two months after he took over, Freixe said the global waters business would be spun off on Jan. 1, 2025 – that didn’t happen.

At the time, a standalone waters business, which includes such brands as Perrier and S.Pellegrino, was to be led by Muriel Lienau, current head of Nestlé Waters Europe. No word on that’s still the plan.

Nestle may retain a stake in the unit in any transaction, the Bloomberg report added -- just as Nestle did when it spun off its ice cream business into a joint venture with PAI Partners in 2020.

About the Author

Dave Fusaro | Editor in Chief

Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.