FDBusiness.com

Bonduelle, the world leader of ready-to-eat vegetables, present in canned, frozen, fresh cut and delicatessen, is acquiring Ready Pac Foods, the US market leader in single serve salad bowls.

Based in California, Ready Pac Foods is the number one producer of single-serve salad bowls in the US through its Bistro Bowl® suite of products and its legacy of innovation and culinary expertise. Ready Pac Foods is also a producer of fresh-cut produce, offering packaged salads, fresh-cut fruits, and mixed vegetables to its retail and foodservice customers. With 4 production facilities located in Irwindale (CA), Jackson (GA), Florence and Swedesboro (NJ), and employs about 3,500 full-time employees. Ready Pac Foods generates approximately $800m of revenues, with a national presence in the U.S. and a wide customer base.

This milestone transaction is a key step in Bonduelle’s strategic ambition ‘VegeGo! 2025’ of being “the world reference in ‘well living’ through vegetable products”. This acquisition will strengthen Bonduelle’s international footprint and dramatically change its profile, making the US the largest country of operations, continuing a longstanding track record of successful acquisitions in North America, in particular Aliments Carrière, Canada, in 2007 and Allens, USA in 2012, and the fresh category, its first business segment.

Bonduelle, a family business, was established in 1853. Its vegetables, grown over 128,000 hectares all over the world, are sold in 100 countries under various brand names and through various distribution channels and technologies. Equipped with 58 company-owned agricultural production and industrial sites, Bonduelle produces in the best growing regions, as close to its clients as possible.