Hormel Foods closes on Muscle Milk deal
Published 10:20 am Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Hormel Foods Corp. closed an agreement Tuesday to acquire CytoSport Holdings Inc. and the Muscle Milk brand. The Austin, Minnesota-based company announced an effective agreement to buy CytoSport on June 30.
Hormel officials believe Muscle Milk’s presence as a leading sports nutrition brand will help anchor the company’s specialty foods division and provide more sales channels for the company to explore in the future.
Total 2014 annual sales are expected to be about $370 million. The purchase price is about $450 million. Hormel Foods expects this acquisition to provide about 5 cents per share accretion in fiscal 2015, with a neutral impact to fiscal 2014 earnings, including transaction costs. Hormel Foods purchased CytoSport from the Pickett family and TSG Consumer Partners. CytoSport is based in Benicia, Calif., and was founded in 1998 by the Pickett family.
Muscle Milk products are the No. 1 brand in the ready-to-drink protein beverage category.
Muscle Milk is the latest in a string of acquisitions Hormel has made in recent years. The company bought Skippy peanut butter for $700 million in 2013. The company acquired Wholly Guacamole dip in 2011, Country Crock and Don Miguel in 2010 and MegaMex Foods in 2009. Hormel was also rumored to be interested in buying the Ragu brand, but it sold to Japan’s Mizkan Group earlier this year.