Cleveland, Ohio-based Eagle Foods has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the Helper main meals and Suddenly Salad side businesses from General Mills Inc. The proposed transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of calendar year 2022, subject to regulatory approval.
“We are builders of brands, categories and people,” said Bernard Kreilmann, CEO of Eagle Foods. “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 platforms within Eagle Foods focused on growing center store categories for retailers – snacks, baking and meals and sides. Eagle will continue investing in its snacks and milk business in parallel with this new investment.
Eagle Foods says it has been successful in driving brand and category growth by investing in research and development, innovations, marketing and strong supply chain efficiencies. It has 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.
“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.”
Eagle Foods is a food company producing and marketing canned sweetened condensed and evaporated milk and snacks products. Eagle Foods has a family of brands, including Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk and Evaporated Milk, Magnolia Sweetened Condensed Milk, PET Milk, Milnot Evaporated Milk, Popcorn Indiana and Cretors Popcorn.
Eagle Foods products are marketed and distributed across all U.S. retail channels, including grocery stores, club stores and mass-merchandisers, as well as foodservice and export, U.S. military and private label business.
For more information, visit eaglefoods.com.
