Pinnacle Foods, the maker of Birds Eye frozen vegetables and Vlasic pickles, agreed to buy Boulder Brands for about $710 million to add gluten-free baked goods and dairy-free spreads.
Boulder’s investors will receive $11 a share, US-based Pinnacle said Tuesday in a statement.
The deal bolsters Pinnacle’s lineup of mostly conventional grocery offerings with a stable of brands that appeal to consumers seeking natural and organic goods. Boulder, based in the Colorado city of the same name, makes Evol natural frozen meals, Udi’s and Glutino gluten-free bakery items, and Earth Balance and Smart Balance spreads. Pinnacle said the deal will add to earnings beginning in 2016.
"It gets them into health and wellness, which is growing a lot faster than typical center-of-the-store brands," said Michael Halen, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. "They’re getting stronger where the customer is going."
With Pinnacle’s announcement Tuesday, the value of pending, completed and proposed deals in the US packaged food industry this year passed $79 billion, the most in at least 12 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The bulk of that total comes from the merger of Kraft Foods and Heinz in a $55 billion deal orchestrated by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and 3G Capital.
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