Thursday, September 3, 2015

Green Giant sold to B&G Foods

General Mills is selling its Green Giant and Le Sueur vegetable businesses to B&G Foods Inc. for about $765 million cash.

It wrote off $260 million in the fourth quarter to reflect declining value for Green Giant.

The company said at the time that the frozen foods sales have been declining and that people also seemed to be shifting to traditional "blocks" of frozen vegetables, which cost less than the vegetable blends and packages with sauces that Green Giant makes.

General Mills is concentrating on cereal, yogurt, organic and natural-food products.

General Mills will continue to run Green Giant's European business and certain other export markets under license from B&G Foods, but it's cutting free its Green Giant and Le Sueur businesses in the U.S., Canada and some other markets.

General Mills plans to use the cash to pay off debt and buy back stock.


B&G Foods CEO Robert Cantwell said he expects to find more opportunities to build on this first foray into the frozen food business.