© Kind
Snack bar maker Kind will sell a minority stake that could attract interest from some of North America’s biggest food companies – including General Mills and Kellogg – according to reports from Reuters.
The New York-based company will offer an unspecified stake that values it at more than $3 billion including debt, Reuters said, quoting insiders familiar with the plans.
With dozens of different snack bars and clusters in its portfolio, the business could also fit with the increasingly health-minded approach taken by PepsiCo – the maker of Quaker breakfast bars and Gatorade energy bars – and Nestlé.
PepsiCo’s CEO, Indra Nooyi, has already signalled her intention to move the company away from carbonates, focusing instead on diet beverages, juices and low-in-sodium snacks.
“Globally, just 12% of our revenues come from trademark Pepsi and less than 25% comes from carbonated soft drinks,” Nooyi said.
In the past month, Nestlé has outlined how it will improve consumer confidence in packaged food and unveiled a model for the future, under pressure from new investors Third Point, which includes a focus on profitable food and beverage categories such as infant nutrition, bottled water and consumer healthcare.
According to Euromonitor, Kind has $727 million in annual sales. It denied that the sale of a minority stake was the first step in selling the company outright.
A spokesperson for Kind said: “Kind is solely focused on becoming the foremost health and wellness leader to provide our consumers with delicious and healthy products so they can do the kind thing every day.”
According to the reported valuation, a 20% stake in Kind would set investors back $600 million, a 25% stake would be worth $750 million, and a 49% stake would have a valuation of $1.47 billion.
That puts Kind at a similar valuation to Mondelēz’s grocery brands – including Philadelphia cream cheese – which it planned to divest in early 2016.
It’s also how much in cash Walmart paid for online retailer Jet, and the original reported price of Suntory’s acquisition of Orangina Schweppes back in 2009 – although that deal later rose to $3.9 billion.
The price goes to show the significance attached to Kind, and the opportunity that exists in the natural snack bar category.
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024