Post by Eddie Devlin

🍽️ EXCLUSIVE: US food conglomerate The Hain Celestial Group is closing in on a sale of its UK and international assets, such as Ella's Kitchen, New Covent Garden Soup Co and Sun-Pat It's all part of massive restructuring efforts at the parent group. Hain is floundering under hundreds of millions of $ in debt and can't seem to stem the ongoing declines in sales, domestically and internationally. A radical turnaround plan announced back in 2023 has failed to reap rewards yet, with the previous CEO falling on her sword last year as a result. Bankers at Goldman Sachs have been charged with undertaking a group-wide comprehensive review to sell-off assets and reshape the portfolio. The North American snacks business was sold back in February and a process kicked off to find a new home for Hain International. The overseas division is largely made up of the Hain Daniels UK business, which operates from nine factories here and accounts for a large part of the $671m of annual sales generated internationally. Hain owns some big names in UK grocery: Ella’s Kitchen, New Covent Garden, YORKSHIRE PROVENDER, Hartley’s, Robertson’s, Sun-Pat and Linda McCartney’s. It also operates a sizeable own-label plant-based milk business in Europe. The problem is increasing numbers of consumers have moved on from traditional brands, at least in part, and growth is harder to come by than ever for the big CPG groups. Factor in a mix of supply chain temperatures across ambient, chilled and frozen at Hain, and it's evident this isn't an easy business to find a buyer for. However, as The Grocer reports here (link below in the comments), a deal is getting really close, with three bidders taking part in a final round of an auction. A sale is by no means certain but is desperately needed by Hain. The group's share price on the Nasdaq has, remarkably, plunged by almost 99% in the past five years. Meaning its value has evaporated to a market cap of just $50m. Interesting side note: Hain was founded by Tilray Brands, Inc. CEO Irwin D. Simon (who has recently rescued BrewDog) back in 1993. The group built scale through striking 20 deals along the road. But it is now another example of a changing of the guard in global food as the likes of Unilever, Kraft Heinz, General Mills etc all wrestle with how to mould sprawling portfolios to a new world of consumers more focused on health & wellness and increasingly taking GLP-1s.