Post Holdings Inc. has agreed to buy the branded and private label cereal, granola and snacks businesses of Hearthside Food Solutions for $158 million in cash, Post officials announced.
Hearthside, based outside Chicago, is a portfolio company of Wind Point Partners.
The deal is expected to close by June. Post officials said the acquisition will contribute $70 million to its net sales. Brentwood-based Post, led by chairman and CEO Bill Stiritz, reported net earnings of $49.9 million in fiscal 2012, on net sales of $958.9 million.
The acquisition includes Hearthside’s Golden Temple, Peace Cereal, Sweet Home Farm and Willamette Valley Granola Company brands, and its private label granola business. Post plans to combine those businesses with its Attune Foods organic and natural cereal business, which Post acquired in December.
In a statement, Post officials said the deal with Hearthside includes a 135,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and 30,000-square-foot warehouse in Eugene, Ore., both of which will be leased by Post.
“This transaction expands Post’s participation in the high-growth segments of the cereal category, and we are excited about the expanded footprint it provides us,” Stiritz said in a statement. The Hearthside brands Post is buying are primarily sold through natural and health food retailers.
