Hormel CEO Jeff Ettinger discusses recent acquisition of Country Crock
By APThursday, February 18, 2010
On the Call: Hormel Foods CEO Jeff Ettinger
Hormel Foods Corp. bought the Shedd’s Country Crock chilled side-dish line from Unilever United States Inc., a move that adds potato and pasta side dishes to its entree-focused product portfolio. CEO Jeff Ettinger discussed the deal’s expected impact during a conference call with investors Thursday.
QUESTION: Now that you closed on Country Crock, what are your expectations regarding accretion?
RESPONSE: It would be fairly modest in the first year. They had been sustaining some distribution losses. It wasn’t in the sweet spot of the former owner. We are a category captain in the refrigerated foods meal area and we have had good dialogue already. And in year one we have to do some investing to get it back on a healthy basis. After that … it is $50 million in sales and would have margins typical of the added-value items and maybe the low-teens kind of margins.
