Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/838473
Verde Farms Purchases Estancia Beef Verde Farms, provider of 100 per- cent grass-fed beef, has acquired Estancia Beef, the import division of El Raigon Natural Beef. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition will help Verde Farms, which sells meat from cattle that are grazed in open pas- ture and never go to feed lots or receive added growth hormones, expand its offerings across the U.S. El Raigon Natural Beef Co. will continue to operate its domestic, grass-fed beef production division, Pasture One. POST HOLDINGS ACQUIRES WEETABIX Post Holdings has acquired Weetabix Food Co. for about $1.8 billion. The deal will boost international growth opportunities for both companies. Post Holdings agreed in principle to establish a joint venture with previous owners the Bright Food Group and Barings Private Equity Asia to manage Weetabix's Chinese operations. Aside from its namesake brands, Weetabix Food Co. also produces Weetabix Minis, Alpen, and Weetos. Post Holdings is also a leader in the cereal category in the U.S., with ready-to-eat cereal, value- added egg products, protein shakes, bars, and powders, peanut and other nut butters, and granola. This acquisition will allow for international growth for both companies. AFFINITY BEVERAGE GROUP ACQUIRES UNDONE CHOCOLATE Affinity Beverage Group has acquired Undone Chocolate LLC and its brand of organ- ic certified vegan chocolate bars, cacao tea, and drinking chocolate. Affinity Beverages and Undone share a common vision of integrating the brand into existing channels of distri- bution, cross promoting with other portfolio brands, and developing new products. Deliveroo Takes Over Maple New York-based dinner deliv- ery startup Maple is being taken over by London-based Deliveroo, which operates in 12 coun- tries across 140 cities globally. Maple's technology will be inte- grated into the Deliveroo plat- form, and some members of the Maple team will join Deliveroo operations in London. "While an incredibly difficult decision for us given the effect on our core operations, it became clear that we needed to close the Maple operation here in New York and look for a partner with scale— one that would allow us to lever- age all that we had built across a broader platform," said Maple co-founders Caleb Merkl and Akshay Navle, in a blog post. SUMMER 2017 133 article bug