IBIE - 2022 Special Edition & Show Preview - 84

MERGERS & AQUISITIONS
The Hershey Co.
acquired
Dot's Pretzels LLC
in 2021.
Toronto, Ont. which describes itself as a " technology
company that bakes, " acquired the Weston
Foods fresh and frozen bakery businesses of
George Weston Ltd. for $1.2 billion. Weston Foods
fresh and frozen bakery businesses serve retail and
foodservice customers with packaged fresh bread
and rolls as well as frozen and artisan bread and
rolls, cakes, donuts, pies and alternatives throughout
Canada and the United States. The company
produces private label products and many wellknown
brands, including Wonder, Ace Bakery,
Country Harvest, D'Italiano, Casa Mendosa, Dave's
Killer Bread and Gadoua. FGF earlier this year said
it has rolled all the brands under one umbrella
known as " Wonderbrands. "
Hearthside Foods Solutions, LLC, Downers
Grove, Ill., meanwhile,
secured
the remaining
ambient assets of
Weston Foods,
which includes
the cookies,
crackers, cones
and wafers division,
for about
$296 million
in December 2021. The acquisition
included six bakeries in North
America. The six plants are in
North Sioux City, SD; Front
Royal, Va.; Green Bay, Wis.;
Somerset, Pa.; Columbus,
Ohio; and Kitchener, Ont.
Approximately 1,100 employees work at the plants.
Crown Bakeries, Brentwood, Tenn., also was extremely
active in-between IBIE shows. The Bakery
Cos., formerly known as The Bun Cos., rebranded
itself as Crown Bakeries in early 2021. In 2020,
Crown Bakeries completed the acquisitions of
84 | INSIDE IBIE
Steck Wholesale Foods in North Sioux City, SD,
and purchased a laminated and sweet goods plant
in Smyrna, Ga., from Specialty Bakers, LLC. Those
transactions were followed by the 2021 acquisitions
of Lawrence, Mass.-based Bagel Boy, Inc.,
the largest manufacturer of premium, New Yorkstyle
bagels in New England, and Michel's Bakery,
a Philadelphia-based baker specializing in largescale,
private label baking for distributors and
quick-service customers nationwide and throughout
the world. Crown Bakeries also snagged a
200,000-square-foot baking manufacturing facility
in Pleasant Prairie, Wis. from Gold Standard
Baking, Chicago. The plant, which opened in 2017,
produces and distributes laminated dough croissant
products.
Cereal operations change hands
After an on-again, off-again series of talks, Post
Holdings, Inc., St. Louis, Mo., in June 2021 acquired
the ready-to-eat cereal business of Oak Brook,
Ill.-based TreeHouse Foods, Inc. for $85 million.
The acquisition included two facilities located in
Lancaster, Ohio, and Sparks, Nev., which feature a
wide range of production capabilities across batch
and extruded products, a research and development
facility located in Sauget, Ill., as well as inventory
valued at approximately $30 million.
Post first announced its intent to acquire the
private label RTE cereal business of TreeHouse
Foods in May 2019, but the deal was terminated on
Jan. 13, 2020, a decision that came a little less than
a month after the Federal Trade Commission filed
an administrative complaint challenging the companies'
proposed $110 million transaction.
Picking up pretzels
The Hershey Co., Derry Township, Pa., made two
acquisitions in the pretzel category for a total
purchase price of approximately $1.2 billion in late
2021. The two businesses acquired were Dot's
Pretzels LLC and Pretzels Inc.
Dot's Pretzels is the manufacturer of Dot's
Homestyle Pretzels. Pretzels Inc. is a co-manufacturer
of pretzels for Dot's Pretzels and others.
Headquartered in Fargo, ND, Dot's Pretzels
operates four manufacturing plants located in
Goodyear, Ariz.; Velva, ND; Edgerton, Kan.; and
Lenexa, Kan.
Founded in 1978 and headquartered in Bluffton,
Ind., Pretzels Inc. operates three manufacturing
plants located in Bluffton and Plymouth, Ind., and
Lawrence, Kan.
*
The Hershey Co. (top)/EPTA Amerrica (bottom)
IBIE - 2022 Special Edition & Show Preview

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