FDBusiness.com

Nestlé has agreed to sell its US confectionery business to Ferrero, the third-largest company in the global chocolate confectionery market, for SFr2.8 billion ($2.8 billion) in cash. Nestlé’s 2016 US confectionery sales reached about SFr900 million. The transaction is expected to close around the end of the first quarter of 2018 following the completion of customary approvals and closing conditions.

Mark Schneider, chief executive of Nestlé, comments: “With Ferrero we have found an exceptional home for our US confectionery business where it will thrive. At the same time, this move allows Nestlé to invest and innovate across a range of categories where we see strong future growth and hold leadership positions, such as pet care, bottled water, coffee, frozen meals and infant nutrition.”

Mark Schneider, chief executive of Nestlé.

Nestlé’s US confectionery business represents about three percent of US Nestlé Group sales. It includes popular local chocolate brands such as Butterfinger, Crunch, BabyRuth, 100Grand, Raisinets, Chunky, OhHenry! And SnoCaps, as well as local sugar brands such as SweeTarts, LaffyTaffy, Nerds, FunDip, PixyStix, Gobstopper, BottleCaps, Spree and Runts.

The transaction covers the US-focused confectionery brands only and does not include Nestlé’s iconic Toll House baking products, a strategic growth brand which the company will continue to develop. Nestlé remains fully committed to growing its leading international confectionery activities around the world, particularly its global brand KitKat.

With sales of SFr26.7 billion in 2016, the US is Nestlé’s largest market. Nestlé products can be found in 97 percent of US households under brands such as Purina, Nestlé Pure Life, Coffee-Mate, Gerber and Stouffer’s. The company employs 50,000 people in more than 120 locations across the US, including 77 factories and 10 R&D centres.

With this transaction, Ferrero will become the third-largest confectionery company in the US market where it is best known for Tic Tac® breath mints, Ferrero Rocher® pralines, Nutella® hazelnut spreads, the Fannie May and Harry London chocolate brands, and the Ferrara Candy Company, which was recently acquired by a Ferrero affiliated company and whose portfolio of brands includes Trolli®, Brach’s® and Black Forest® Gummies.

Giovanni Ferrero.

Ferrero will acquire Nestle’s US manufacturing facilities in Bloomington, Franklin Park and Itasca, Illinois, and the confectionery-related employees, and will continue to operate through the offices in Glendale, California, as well as from its other current locations in Illinois and in New Jersey.

Giovanni Ferrero, executive chairman of the Ferrero Group, says: “We are very excited about the acquisition of Nestle’s US confectionery business, which has an outstanding portfolio of iconic brands with rich histories and tremendous awareness. In combination with Ferrero’s existing US presence, including the recently acquired Fannie May Confections Brands and the Ferrara Candy Company, we will have substantially greater scale, a broader offering of high-quality products to customers across the chocolate snack, sugar confectionary and seasonal categories, and exciting new growth opportunities in the world’s largest confectionery market. We look forward to welcoming the talented team from Nestle to Ferrero and to continuing to invest in and grow all of our products and brands in this key strategic and attractive market.”