US private-label supplier TreeHouse Foods, which is in the midst of a transformation programme under newly-installed chief executive Steven Oakland, is said to be eyeing another business disposal.
Goldman Sachs has reportedly been hired by the Illinois-based firm to explore a sale of Flagstone Foods, according to The New York Post, quoting two unnamed sources.
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TreeHouse acquired the trail mixes and snack bar maker in 2014 for US$860m from private-equity fund Gryphon Investors. But The New York Post said in an article on 16 November the company is unlikely to get the price it paid in that deal.
Oakland, who took the CEO job during the summer, is tasked with seeing through the New York-listed company’s TreeHouse 2020 strategy, which entails reducing a bloated SKU count by 25% by the end of the decade and improving profit margins. He has already disposed of the McCann’s Irish Oatmeal business, reaping $32m from that sale to US peer B&G Foods in July.
His predecessor Sam Reed also offloaded TreeHouse’s soups and infant foods business known as SIF in May last year.
A spokesperson at TreeHouse declined to comment on the matter when contacted by just-food today (19 November).
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By GlobalDataThe New York Post quoted one of the sources as saying 8th Avenue Food & Provisions is seen as a possible buyer of Flagstone. The named potential suitor is a new business spun out from US food manufacturer Post Holdings, which said in August it would consolidate its private-label business into 8th Avenue Food & Provisions.
