General Mills has completed the sale of its Helper main meals and Suddenly Salad side dishes businesses to Eagle Family Foods Group in a cash transaction valued at approximately $610 million.
Eagle Foods, a portfolio company of Kelso & Company, is a leading producer and marketer of canned sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk products and retail snack foods, distributed through U.S. retail channels, foodservice and export, U.S. military and private label channels.
Net sales for the Helper and Suddenly Salad businesses totaled approximately $235 million in fiscal 2021. General Mills included the impact of this transaction in its Fiscal 2023 guidance issued in its fourth-quarter and full-year fiscal 2022 earnings press release on June 29, 2022.
“We are builders of brands, categories, and people,” said Bernard Kreilmann, Eagle Foods CEO. “The Helper and Suddenly Salad brands, with strong heritage and high consumer awareness, are a perfect fit for what Eagle does best – investing in, innovating, and revitalizing brands to drive growth and nurture them to reach their full potential.”
The acquisition creates three diversified platforms within Eagle Foods focused on growing center store categories for retailers – snacks, baking, and meals and sides. Eagle will continue investing in its growing snacks and milk business in parallel with this new investment.
Eagle Foods has been successful in driving brand and category growth by investing in R&D, innovations, marketing and strong supply chain efficiencies. As the leader in the sweetened condensed milk category, Eagle Foods has consistently driven sales and share growth by bringing new households into the category. Eagle Foods also reversed negative share and distribution trends of two struggling popcorn brands it acquired, Cretors and Popcorn Indiana, turning them into two of the fastest growing brands in their category.
“We will leverage our core values of entrepreneurship, collaboration, and quality to grow all of our brands and further expand into the center of the store,” Kreilmann said. “We will immediately start expanding the positioning of these two iconic brands and bring consumers tasty, convenient, and affordable meal solutions.”
Headquartered in Minneapolis, General Mills generated fiscal 2022 net sales of U.S. $19.0 billion. In addition, the company’s share of non-consolidated joint venture net sales totaled U.S. $1.1 billion.
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In a near statistical tie, H-E-B edged out Amazon and Amazon Fresh as top ranked eCommerce grocers, according to data science miner dunnhumbly in its inaugural eCommerce Retailer Preference Index, a nationwide study examining the emerging $100 billion U.S. eCommerce grocery market.
Walmart landed in the fourth spot and Sam’s Club rounded out the top five eCommerce grocers. Kroger, BJ’s and Sprouts had the next highest scores in the RPI, with all three finishing in the top tercile. The dunnhumby eCommerce grocers RPI was released as part of The dunnhumby Quarterly: a strategic market analysis of key retail themes, with the first edition being focused on eCommerce.
“H-E-B’s impressive performance proves that it’s possible to compete and win against Amazon when it comes to grocery e-commerce. Their success offers mid-size and regional retailers a roadmap on how to succeed online,” said Grant Steadman, president of North America for dunnhumby. “H-E-B’s eCommerce journey goes back to 2015, when they first started with curbside pick-up, and they have since built up a powerful online ecosystem. The combination of a simple and easy to use shopping experience with a fantastic emotional connection with customers shows how grocers can thrive in this multichannel landscape.”
The overall RPI rankings are the result of a consumer survey-informed statistical model that predicts how retailers execute on the customer needs that matter most for driving eCommerce performance and emotional bonds with online shoppers. The eCommerce RPI methodology calculates eCommerce performance through a composite score of Change in Web Visits (2019 to 2021) from SimilarWeb, Share of Wallet Online, and Online Penetration of a Retailer’s Total Shopper Base.
Retailers’ preference driver score and emotional connection score were gathered from a customized, online survey of 3,000 U.S. households that shopped online at least once in the 30 days prior to being surveyed. The five drivers of customer preference for eCommerce are: 1) owned digital asset usage, 2) ease and reliability, 3) substitutes, 4) product, 5) price.
Key findings:
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Dr. Praeger’s Sensible Foods, a leader in the all-natural, plant-based, vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, and kosher frozen food categories for more than 25 years, is unveiling a campaign that highlights the simple, clean, and delicious ingredients consumers enjoy with veggie burgers.
In the spot, crafted by Wheelhouse Labs, the Dr. Praeger’s California Veggie Burger, one of the top selling veggie burgers at Whole Foods, is perfectly pieced together with each of its fresh components – creating a simple, yet delicious meal. As AOR, Wheelhouse Labs will be responsible for developing new brand campaigns to drive awareness and trial around Dr. Praeger’s portfolio of plant-based, whole, simple, and healthy products. Dr. Praeger’s offers a variety of great-tasting, veggie, plant-based protein burgers, appetizers, and kids’ snacks.
“We are so excited to introduce the Great Taste Simplified campaign with Wheelhouse Labs,” says Ken Krasnow, Chief Marketing Officer at Dr. Praeger’s. “What sets us apart from our competitors is how our product is crafted. We combine great taste with high quality vegetables, providing consumers with a delicious flavor that keeps them coming back for more.”
The spot is live now across major social media and digital marketing channels.
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