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Hain Celestial Group Agrees to Acquire U.K.’s Premier Foods Portfolio

08/22/2012 – Melville, N.Y.  (PRNewswire) – The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:  HAIN), a leading natural and organic products company providing consumers with A Healthy Way of Life™, today announced that Hain Daniels Group had entered into an agreement to acquire Premier Foods plc's portfolio of market-leading packaged grocery brands including Hartley's®, Sun-Pat®, Gale's® Robertson's®, and Frank Cooper's® — with peanut butter, honey, jams, fruit and jelly, marmalade, and chocolate product offerings — including its Histon manufacturing base in Cambridgeshire, UK. The purchase, which is subject to approval by Premier Foods shareholders and consent from its banking syndicate, is expected to close by the end of October 2012. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to Hain Celestial's earnings upon closing. 

 

Hain Daniels Group, wholly owned by Hain Celestial, was established in October 2011 following the acquisition of The Daniels Group. Hain Daniels makes and sells fresh food and drinks in eight chilled and frozen food categories under leading brands including the New Covent Garden Soup Co.®, Johnson's Juice Co.®, Linda McCartney®, Farmhouse Fare® and Lovetub®. 

 

"When we acquired the Daniels Group, we planned to build upon its leadership position and use its platform for organic growth as well as future acquisition growth in the United Kingdom. The strategic initiatives launched in the United Kingdom build upon the successful long-term growth of products in the chilled category achieved by Rob Burnett and his enhanced team who we expect will continue to leverage the Hain Daniels footprint into adjacent categories to deliver superior growth and profitable returns," said Irwin D. Simon, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hain Celestial. "In order for Hain Daniels to become one of the largest healthy food companies in the United Kingdom, we needed to expand Hain Daniels base into Ambient Grocery where we can leverage Hain Celestial's track record of success in the U.S. and Canada."

 

Building upon the success of Hain Celestial's product offerings in ambient grocery in North America and Europe, Hain Daniels will establish an Ambient Grocery Division. The Company expects the Ambient Grocery Division to supply major food retailers, foodservice, business to business and export customers in the United Kingdom including Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Tesco, The Co-Operative, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer. 

  

The business being acquired generated over $250 million in sales in its last fiscal year, 60% of which were sales of branded products.  Consideration in the transaction will consist of 170 million Pounds Sterling in cash consideration and 30 million pounds in shares of Hain Celestial common stock.

 

"The acquisition of the Premier Foods brands furthers our goal to expand in the United Kingdom and positions the new expanded business in the top 40 of all food and beverage suppliers in the UK," commented Irwin Simon. "We expect to leverage the loyal customer base from Hartley's, Sun-Pat, Gale's, Robertson's, Frank Cooper's and Rose's with our existing global brands including Rice Dream®, Celestial Seasonings®, Earth's Best®, Terra® Chips and Sensible Portions® in the United Kingdom marketplace." 

 

 

"Our mission at Hain Daniels is to offer our customers and the consumer relevant, convenient, inspiring and innovative branded fruit and vegetable solutions for a wide variety of consumption occasions. We believe creating the Ambient Grocery Division through the acquisition and integration of these Premier Foods brands will strengthen this proposition," added Rob Burnett, Chief Executive Officer, Hain Daniels. "Key to the success will be the experienced workforce and management at the Histon facility with whom we look forward to working."    

 

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