Major food and nutrition firm Post Holdings Inc has agreed to acquire the PowerBar and Musashi brands and their related worldwide assets from Nestlé SA. The terms of the deal, and thus the purchase price, were not disclosed.
In a release from Post Holdings the company stated, ‘This transaction furthers Post’s efforts to expand upon its investment in the active nutrition category while continuing to execute against the strategy of transforming Post into a more diversified consumer goods company.’
The acquired brands participate in the rapidly growing sports nutrition bar and sports nutrition supplement categories. Post anticipates combining this transaction with Post’s current active nutrition portfolio to form a singular Active Nutrition Group with expected annualized revenue approaching US$550 million.
The combination Post Holdings’ Premier Nutrition operation and its Premier Protein and Joint Juice brands sits alongside Dymatize Enterprises’ Dymatize and Supreme brands. By adding PowerBar and Musashi, Post now has a broad portfolio of brands addressing various segments of the ‘category covering body building, endurance, life style and sports nutrition consumer interests and benefits.’
The combined portfolio will provide Post Holdings’ Active Nutrition Group access to all channels of sales and distribution as well as all leading product forms including bars, shakes and powders while expanding its presence worldwide.
David Ritterbush, President and CEO of Premier Nutrition, and Greg Venner, President and CEO of Dymatize will serve as co-CEOs of the Active Nutrition Group within Post, reporting to Terence Block, President and COO of Post.
“It’s truly exciting to continue the transformation of Post and to increase the role active nutrition will play in that transformation,” said William Stiritz, Post’s Chairman and CEO.
“I’m confident that the talented associates joining Post from Nestle will make a powerful contribution towards this continued transformation.”
PowerBar is an iconic brand in the active nutrition industry having offered up the first energy bar created by athletes for athletes nearly 30 years ago. PowerBar has a very high awareness among bar users and has enjoyed high levels of trust among consumers for over 25 years. Musashi is a leading sports nutrition brand in Australia and enjoys leading levels of awareness among its target audience, physically active males.
Post noted that capital has been invested in the business over the past seven years and manufacturing capacity exists in the US, Germany and Australia to meet projected demand for the next three to five years. Post management believes that PowerBar can continue to capitalize on the high brand recognition it enjoys with focus and innovation to drive this iconic brand.
The transaction is expected to be completed in Post’s fiscal third quarter, subject to customary closing conditions. Post expects to fund the acquisition with cash on hand. Material terms of the purchase agreement will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on a Form 8-K within four business days.
Post is over 115-years old and traces its heritage to CW Post who introduced Grape-Nuts, the first natural ready-to-eat cereal marketed to enhance health and vitality, in 1897. CW Post’s son-in-law, EF Hutton, saw the value of bringing together several brands under one corporate owner and from this General Foods Corporation was born.
General Foods was acquired by Philip Morris in 1985. Subsequently, Philip Morris purchased Kraft and merged it with General Foods. Not surprisingly, Post received less and less attention as it became part of an-ever larger conglomerate. In 2008, Kraft sold Post to private-label manufacturer Ralcorp. Post was then spun off into a separate, independent company on 3 February 2012.
And so, borrowing from TS Eliot, one of its St Louis locals, Post noted that ‘(we) arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
www.postholdings.com
www.powerbar.com
