ST. LOUIS -- Post Holdings Inc. has agreed to acquire the PowerBar and Musashi brands and related worldwide assets from Nestle S.A.
This transaction furthers Post's efforts to expand upon its investment in the active-nutrition category while continuing to execute against the strategy of transforming Post into a more diversified consumer-goods company. Post anticipates combining this transaction with Post's current active-nutrition portfolio to form a singular Active Nutrition Group with expected annualized revenue approaching $550 million. The acquired brands participate in the rapidly growing sports-nutrition bar and sports-nutrition supplement categories. The global active-nutrition category is expected to remain strong with the category projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7% between 2014 and 2017, according to Euromonitor.
The combination of Premier Nutrition's Premier Protein and Joint Juice brands and Dymatize Enterprises' Dymatize and Supreme brands with the PowerBar and Musashi brands will afford Post a broad portfolio of brands addressing various segments of the category covering body building, endurance, life style and sports nutrition consumer interests and benefits. The combined portfolio will provide the Active Nutrition Group access to all channels of sales and distribution as well as all leading product forms including bars, shakes and powders while expanding its presence worldwide.
David Ritterbush, president and CEO of Premier Nutrition, and Greg Venner, president and CEO of Dymatize, will serve as co-CEO's of the Active Nutrition Group within Post, reporting to Terence E. Block, president and COO of Post.
"It's truly exciting to continue the transformation of Post and to increase the role active nutrition will play in that transformation. I'm confident that the talented associates joining Post from Nestle will make a powerful contribution towards this continued transformation," said William P. Stiritz, Post's chairman and CEO.
Acquisition of PowerBar and Musashi The PowerBar and Musashi brands manufacture and market premium bars, powders and gels in geographies that represent more than 90% of global category sales, according to Euromonitor. PowerBar is an iconic brand in the active nutrition industry having been the very first energy bar created by athletes for athletes nearly thirty years ago. PowerBar has a very high awareness among bar users and has enjoyed high levels of trust among consumers for over twenty five years. Musashi is a leading sports nutrition brand in Australia and enjoys leading levels of awareness among its target audience, physically active males.
The sale is part of Nestle's drive to shed underperforming assets, according to Reuters report. The world's biggest food company is reviewing its portfolio to identify brands to be improved or sold, having already offloaded the bulk of its Jenny Craig weight-loss business in November.
Several consumer goods companies are pruning their portfolios as faltering economies have made trading more difficult worldwide. "We have an ongoing process of portfolio review and this decision came out of that," a Nestle spokeswoman told Reuters. "The divestment allows Nestle Nutrition to focus more closely on the core elements of our business."
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