Celestial Group, Inc. has added Rudi’s Organic Bakery, Inc. to its portfolio of organic and natural brands. Rudi’s is a manufacturer of organic and gluten-free grain-based foods.Hain Celestial paid $61.3 million to acquire Rudi’s from Charterhouse Equity Partners, a private equity firm. Rudi’s generated approximately $60 million in sales during 2013.
“We are very excited by the strategic acquisition of Rudi’s, a leading certified organic bread brand, which expands our participation into 11 of the top 20 natural categories in the United States,” said Irwin D. Simon, president and chief executive officer of Hain Celestial. “As a company committed to driving product innovation, we plan to build upon Rudi’s leadership position and see the opportunity to take Rudi’s into other categories where the brand does not have products today.
“We have a proven ability to expand great brands and products into various channels of distribution, including the conventional, mass and club channels where we see significant opportunities for increased distribution. We expect to deliver significant synergies through top-line sales and bottom-line cost efficiencies by effectively leveraging the platform of Hain Celestial U.S., as we have successfully demonstrated with previous acquisitions."
Hain Celestial has been aggressive on the acquisition front. In January, the company acquired Tilda Ltd., a specialty rice company based in Essex, U.K. In May 2013, the company acquired Ellas’ Kitchen Group Ltd.
