General Mills is selling its Croissant King and van den Bergh’s frozen bakery business in Australia to Ireland-based food and ingredients firm Kerry Group.
The sale, which includes frozen dough and pastry products sold to professional bakers, as well as two plants located in Mansfield, Queensland, and Camellia, New South Wales, will allow General Mills to concentrate on its retail channels, it said.
Around 110 employees from the frozen bakery business will transfer to Kerry with the sale, which will become effective from 1 December.
“General Mills’ focus is on growing our key brands in retail,” said Markus Muehleisen, managing director of General Mills Australia. These brands include Old El Paso Mexican food, Latina pastas and sauces, Betty Crocker baked goods and Nature Valley muesli bars, which were introduced in Australia last April.”
He added: “While our bakery team has built a solid business of frozen pastries and dough products serving bakers for almost 20 year, Kerry’s scale and experience also positions it well to grow and advance the business in this category.”
General Mills acquired van den Bergh’s in 1999 and Croissant King in 2005.
