The US McCormick Group has purchased Doug Shears' hi-tech Australian food producer Gourmet Garden and its range of herbs packaged in toothpaste-tube style products, for $150 million.
The deal, which involves purchasing 100 per cent of the shares of the Queensland-based, privately owned Botanical Food Co. Pty Ltd., is set to give McCormick a chilled packaged herbs brand with annual sales of $70 million, and double digit growth.
Lawrence E. Kurzius, President and CEO of McCormkick, said: "We are pleased to expand our portfolio of leading brands around the world with the addition of Gourmet Garden. As a global market leader in chilled convenient packaged herbs, Gourmet Garden exports its products to 15 countries with the largest market being the United States."
Despite the success of Gourmet Garden in Asia, as well as Europe and the US, Mr Shears said it was hard for Australian food processors to crack the Asian market
"As the major Asian markets are controlled by international retailers, you need a unique product. But it is pretty hard to get something into a prime marketing position, so that's the limitation.''
However, Mr Shears said the opportunity remained for Australia to market itself as a "green, clean" foods producer to a growing middle class in Asia. This is a marketing theme he helped to pioneer more than 25 years ago.
