Who Makes Peter Pan Peanut Butter

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Conagra Brands to sell Peter Pan peanut butter to Post Holdings

Published December. 7, 2020

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Swoop Brief:

Mail service Holdings is buying Peter Pan peanut butter from Conagra Brands for an undisclosed amount, the companies said in a statement. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021.
Mail service and Conagra already have a history when it comes to the iconic peanut butter brand. Peter Pan products are currently co-manufactured by Postal service'due south 8th Avenue Food & Provisions.
The purchase marks the latest in a series of deals in the food and beverage space in which CPG companies either add on smaller brands or jettison ones that are no longer fast-growing, at the superlative of their category or fit with the rest of their portfolio.

Swoop Insight:

While Post Holdings is best known for its roster of cereal brands, such every bit Honey Bunches of Oats and Shredded Wheat, the St. Louis-based company has largely been built through acquisitions since it was spun off past private label owner Ralcorp in 2012. Since then, Post has added to the fold British cereal make Weetabix, egg products maker Michael Foods, packaged nutrient make Bob Evans and ready-to-eat cereal producer MOM Brands.

Peter Pan peanut butter will now be part of that mix, giving Postal service a recognizable center-of-the shop brand. These kinds of products have seen a resurgence during the coronavirus pandemic as consumers snack more and stock up on brands they know. Peanut butter remains i of the most popular spreads, with hundreds of millions of dollars in sales posted each yr. Post is no stranger to the Peter Pan brand and likely needs to do petty to integrate it, since Postal service'south 8th Artery Food & Provisions purchased Conagra's Illinois peanut butter facililty concluding year.

Co-ordinate to data from Statista, J. M. Smucker'south Jif was by far the leading peanut butter brand in 2017. Information technology had more than than xxx% of the market and about $600 1000000 in sales — triple that of Skippy, the side by side largest make. In data published final calendar month, the data company asked consumers which brands of peanut butter they take eaten in the terminal thirty days. Jif, Skippy and store brands topped the list; Peter Pan came in 4th.

For Conagra, that ranking may have played a part in the company's determination to sell the brand. Conagra has significantly expanded its own presence in the frozen and institute-based segments with the $10.nine billion takeover of Pinnacle Foods in 2018. The bargain added large well-known brands in those areas — including Birds Eye, Hungry-Human and Gardein — to its holdings.

Conagra may not have seen peanut butter equally a category that could assistance it deliver meaningful sales increases. This isn't the merely portfolio pruning the visitor has done. Conagra has also divested its private label peanut butter, Wesson oil and Lender'due south Bagels.

"Our strategy is to stay close to habitation in our cadre categories of frozen, grocery and snacks, and and then in this regard, (Pinnacle) is very much right in our wheelhouse and arguably a large bolt on," Sean Connolly, Conagra's CEO, said in 2018. "Only calibration-wise, access to the incremental platforms similar vegetable, meatless, it is transformational and we're excited about that."

After several years of big deals, including Conagra ownership Meridian,Campbell Soup's conquering of Snyder's-Lance for $4.87 billion and Tyson's $4.2 billion conquering of AdvancePierre, Big Nutrient has recently concentrated on smaller deals to complement existing brands or bring companies into fast-growing segments. Equally companies await to reposition their portfolios, it'southward likely that opportunistic buyers similar Post could come up along and grab more than brands like Peter Pan — a reliable, stable offering in a category that remains popular with snack-loving shoppers.