Apollo and Metropoulos hope to have America's favorite snacks back on the shelf by this summer. They agreed to pay $410 million to purchase the brands, five bakeries and certain equipment.
Flowers Foods has integrated more than 100 acquisitions since 1968, and three significant ones in just the last three years Tasty Baking, Lepage Bakeries, and the Sara Lee and Earthgrains brands in California.
This acquisition strengthens Flowers Foods' market presence in California, adding about 14.5 million people to the 70 percent of the U.S. population that currently has access to its fresh breads and rolls.
Newly appointed President and CEO, Allen L. Shiver, notes that Flowers will remain focused on strengthening its number two position in the U.S. fresh baked foods market.
Flowers agrees to purchase the Wonder, Nature's Pride, Merita, Home Pride and Butternut bread brands; 20 bakeries and approximately 38 depots for $360 million.
The Oklahoma City license will be completed shortly, and the first phase of the California transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of fiscal 2013.
The merger creates a larger business with a complementary portfolio of high-quality bakery products and deepens Flowers' penetration of the estimated $4 billion U.S. snack cake category.
