Kraft Heinz completes sale of nuts business to Hormel Foods for $3.35bn

Kraft Heinz has concluded the divesture of its nuts business to Hormel Foods in a $3.35bn cash transaction.

A definitive agreement on the acquisition was signed earlier this year.

Kraft Heinz CEO Miguel Patricio said: “The sale of our nuts portfolio is another important milestone in our transformation.

“The divestiture is a great example of our agile portfolio management and will help Kraft Heinz enhance our overall growth profile while enabling our strategic focus.”

With the completion of the deal, Hormel Foods now takes over products under Planter’s brand, including single variety and mixed nuts, trail mix, nutrition products, cheez balls, cheez curls, and Corn Nuts-branded products.

The deal covers three production facilities and global intellectual property rights of the Planters brand, which is subject to existing third-party licences in certain international jurisdictions, as well as the Corn Nuts brand.

Hormel Foods board chairman, president and CEO Jim Snee said: “This is an important day for Hormel Foods as we close the largest acquisition in our company’s history.

“As a global branded food company, we have been making a purposeful and strategic shift in our portfolio of brands and products, which includes enhancing our snacking offerings.

“The Planters snacking business is an important cornerstone to this strategy, and now joins our leading brands such as SKIPPY, SPAM, Hormel Natural Choice, Applegate, Justin’s, Columbus and Wholly Guacamole.”

For this deal, Citi and Credit Suisse served as the financial advisers to Hormel Foods while Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath served as legal counsel.

In another US development in the food sector, New York-based private equity firm Ronin Equity Partners has announced the acquisition of three speciality cheese companies, namely Red Apple Cheese, Barron County Cheese, and Cheese Brothers.

Red Apple Cheese is engaged in the production of smoked, flavoured, and kosher speciality cheeses while Barron County Cheese is a major smoker and co-packer for the speciality cheese industry, and Cheese Brothers is an e-commerce speciality cheese business.