Campbell Creates New US Snacking Unit
Campbell Soup Company announces it has completed the acquisition of Snyder’s-Lance, and it forms a new U.S snacking unit: Campbell Snacks.
“Snyder’s-Lance represents a strategic and transformative acquisition for Campbell, creating a USD10bn company with nearly half of our annual net sales in the faster-growing snacks category,” said Denise Morrison, Campbell’s president and CEO. “The combination of Campbell and Snyder’s-Lance creates a unique, diversified snacking portfolio of differentiated brands and a large variety of better-for-you snacks for consumers. I am excited about the combination and confident that it will create significant shareholder value through both revenue growth and cost synergies.”
To unlock the power of the combined brand portfolio, and achieve both cost and potential revenue opportunities, Campbell is integrating the Pepperidge Farm and Snyder’s-Lance portfolios to create a unified snacking organization in the U.S. called Campbell Snacks. The unit will be led by Carlos Abrams-Rivera, former president, U.S. Biscuits and Snacks, who will report to Luca Mignini, president, Global Biscuits and Snacks.
“We carefully selected leaders from Campbell and Snyder’s-Lance to form the Campbell Snacks leadership team based on their expertise and understanding of how to leverage both businesses to support overall growth and profitability across the enterprise,” said Abrams-Rivera. “The Campbell Snacks team will focus on optimizing the value of our U.S. snacks business to deepen our partnership with customers through the power of the combined portfolio.”
Mignini said: “We have the insights and know-how in snacks to execute and grow in this space. I am very confident that Carlos and the expertise of the Campbell Snacks leadership team will continue to drive momentum in the businesses and achieve the cost synergies we have outlined. We are taking a disciplined approach to the integration of Snyder’s-Lance to ensure its success.”
The Campbell Snacks portfolio will feature Pepperidge Farm’s iconic brands, including Goldfish and Milano, along with Snyder’s-Lance’s well-known brands, such as Snyder’s of Hanover, Lance, Kettle Brand, KETTLE chips, Cape Cod, Snack Factory Pretzel Crisps, Emerald and Late July.
Campbell’s global baked snacks product portfolio, including its Pepperidge Farm, Arnott’s and Kelsen businesses, generated approximately USD2.5bn in net sales in fiscal year 2017. With the addition of Snyder’s-Lance, snacking will now represent approximately 47% of Campbell’s annual net sales (previously 32%). Campbell’s soup portfolio will represent approximately 26% of the company’s annual net sales.
Campbell expects to achieve approximately USD170m in cost synergies by end of fiscal 2022. Snyder’s-Lance reported USD2.2bn in net sales for the year ended December, 30, 2017.