Dive Brief:
- Harvest Hill, majority owned by Brynwood Partners VII L.P., announced Wednesday it will acquire the NUTRAMENT business from Nestle HealthCare Nutrition, Inc., according to a news release.
- Nutrament, a dairy-based energy drink producer, is Harvest Hill's fourth acquisition since its founding in July 2014. This is also the company's second acquisition of a brand from Nestle.
- Neither company disclosed the terms of the deal, but they expect the transaction to close by the end of the year.
Dive Insight:
With Nutrament, Harvest Hill is expanding its beverages portfolio with a brand that has decades' worth of building customer loyalty. That type of brand reach is similar to other Harvest Hill brands, including Juicy Juice.
However, Juicy Juice isn't necessarily firmly aligned with the current consumer health trend sweeping across the beverage industry. Between bottled water's overtaking of soda as America's top-consumed beverage to health advocates' battle against consumers' high sugar consumption — not to mention being firmly positioned as a children's beverage — it isn't necessarily top of mind for health-conscious consumers.
However, Nutrament is closer to that ideal. It offers a dairy-based beverage, which is becoming more popular due to dairy's protein content, that provides consumers with the functionality of an energy drink. This has been another fast-growing beverage category in recent years, particularly among active, on-the-go consumers.
Also notable in this transaction is that Nestle has unloaded yet another brand on Harvest Hill, which suggests Nestle could be trimming its portfolio. Divestments won't necessarily benefit Nestle in its quest to achieve its sales growth goals, unless the company is freeing up capital for an acquisition or investments in startups that could expand its portfolio in the future.