DEERFIELD, Ill. -- Mondelez International has acquired Enjoy Life Foods, a private U.S. snacking company and a market-leading brand in the "free-from" segment.
Enjoy Life offers more than 40 products, including cookies, chocolate, snack bars and savory snacks that are allergy friendly and gluten free. Enjoy Life's products are free from the eight most common allergens--wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish and shellfish--which together account for about 90% of all food allergies.
"As we focus on continuing to drive growth in snacking, the acquisition of Enjoy Life Foods is a great strategic fit for us," said Mark Clouse, chief growth officer at Mondelez. "The Enjoy Life brand expands our portfolio into faster-growing, on-trend, 'better-for-you' areas and provides an excellent platform to make these delicious offerings available to consumers with 'free-from' needs or simply looking for healthy-lifestyle options, both in the United States and beyond."
The $12 billion "free-from" market in the United States is large and growing at strong double-digit rates, according to Euromonitor, driven by an increasing incidence of food allergies and food intolerances as well as consumers adopting "free from" as a healthy-lifestyle option.
"Enjoy Life offers an excellent brand promise that's trusted by their loyal and engaged consumers," Clouse said. "We're excited about the extraordinary potential of this business and the entrepreneurial team leading it. We have a great opportunity to share our expertise, learn from their experience and work to accelerate Enjoy Life's growth in this exciting consumer space."
"As we combine our great brand, market leadership and passion for our consumers with the global resources, scale and marketing expertise of Mondelez International, I'm confident this relationship will enable us to reach even greater heights," said Scott Mandell, CEO and founder of Enjoy Life Foods.
Mandell and other members of the Enjoy Life leadership team will continue to lead the company. Mondelez will operate Enjoy Life Foods as a separate, wholly owned subsidiary to continue to nurture its entrepreneurial spirit, but will provide backoffice support and access to its global resources.
The transaction was a simultaneous sign-and-close deal. The companies did not disclose the financial terms.
Deerfield, Ill.-based Mondelez is a global snacking company with 2014 revenue of $34 billion. It is a world leader in biscuits, chocolate, gum, candy, coffee and powdered beverages, with billion-dollar brands such as Oreo, LU and Nabisco biscuits; Cadbury, Cadbury Dairy Milk and Milka chocolate; Trident gum; Jacobs coffee and Tang powdered beverages.
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