TreeHouse Foods to acquire pasta portfolio of Riviana Foods for $242.5m

TreeHouse Foods has agreed to purchase the majority of the US branded pasta portfolio from Ebro’s subsidiary Riviana Foods in a $242.5m cash deal.

As part of the deal, TreeHouse Foods will acquire regional brands such as Skinner, No Yolks, American Beauty, Creamette, San Giorgio, Prince and Light ‘n Fluffy, Mrs Weiss’, Wacky Mac, P&R Procino-Rossi and New Mill.

It will also take over the manufacturing facility in St Louis, Missouri, which currently has a workforce of 90 employees.

TreeHouse Foods president and CEO Steve Oakland said: “The acquisition of Ebro’s well-known regional pasta brands further strengthens our portfolio and expands our scale to better serve our national and regional customers.

“Our existing private label and regional brand pasta business will be a natural complement to the acquired brands and will enable us to further optimise our production network, improve capacity utilisation and deliver greater profitability and free cash flow.”

Riviana Foods will retain the Ronzoni national brand, as well as its manufacturing plants in Winchester, Virginia; and Fresno, California.

The businesses that are part of the deal generated nearly $200m for the 12-month period ending 30 June.

Completion of the deal is subject to Hart-Scott Rodino review and other customary closing conditions and expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.

Oakland added: “The work we have done over the past several years to strengthen our operating platform and realign our businesses into two distinct segments has positioned us well to execute this transaction and integrate the pasta business.

“We are confident this accretive acquisition, along with the significant progress we have made in generating free cash flow this year, will enhance our ability to drive shareholder value.”

For this deal, Evercore is acting as financial adviser to TreeHouse Foods while Winston & Strawn is serving as legal counsel to the company.

Last August, TreeHouse Foods completed the divestiture of its snack nuts and trail mix business to Atlas Holdings for $90m.