Dive Brief:
- Flowers Foods has announced it will acquire Alpine Valley Bread Company, a family-owned U.S. producer of certified organic and all-natural breads, for $120 million in cash and stock.
- Alpine Valley is projected to report $85 million to $95 million in sales for fiscal 2016.
- With this acquisition, Flowers Foods benefits from an expanded organic breads portfolio while providing Alpine Valley with the "resources we need and we are pleased with Flowers' commitment to keep our brands and our bakeries true to what has made our growth possible — making bread with a carefully developed process with pure and simple ingredients," said Todd Wood, Alpine Valley Bread Company's CEO, in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Last month, the company announced an agreement to purchase Dave's Killer Bread, "the best-selling organic bread in the U.S.," according to a news release at the time.
"According to IRI data, the organic bread market has grown at a rate of 27% over the past four years, significantly outperforming the broader $23 billion U.S. retail baked goods market," according to a news release.
Sales for organic foods overall have tripled over the past decade, and they have begun to command more presence at both health foods stores and major traditional retailers, such as Wal-Mart and Target.
More larger companies are acquiring smaller organic brands, such as General Mills' acquisition of Annie's in 2014 and Hormel's acquisition of Applegate Farms earlier this year.