Dive Brief:
- The Hain Celestial Group has created a strategic joint venture between Future Consumer Limited (FCL) and Hain Tilda India Private Limited in order to pursue joint interests in food marketing and development in India, according to a company release.
- FCL is the food and fast moving consumer goods arm of Future Group, one of India’s retail pioneers with several retail formats in the country.
- The joint venture aims to market and distribute Terra, Garden of Eatin', Sensible Portions, Dream, Earth's Best and other Hain Celestial brands.
Dive Insight:
Hain Celestial Group is already a leading organic and natural products company with operations in North America, Europe and India. This deal shows Hain reaching out further to increase its influence in India, a prime market for natural food.
The Hain Celestial Group weathered recent challenges with accounting irregularities leading to a delisting notice from the Nasdaq Stock Market at the end of August. This move shows that, at least from a corporate standpoint, those issues are in the past and will not impact the future of the company.
Investors who were concerned about the company's next steps will likely be reassured by this connection with a strong partner like the Future Group. Some speculate that move could signal that a potential takeover of Hain Celestial is in the cards, but there’s been less chatter about this theory since its problems in late fall.
Still, before the accounting issues came to light, Hain Celestial had been seen as ripe for a takeover. The natural products company had seen double-digit revenue growth for 20 consecutive quarters. As soon as the company announced the accounting issues had been resolved, its stocks spiked again, so this partnership could bolster the company on the road to improvement.