Post Holdings to buy TreeHouse cereal business, fold into Lakeville-based unit

May 3, 2019 at 3:15AM
A box of Post brand Honey Bunches of Oats cereal sits on a shelf at Garden of Eden Grocery Store in New York, U.S. on Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007. Ralcorp Holdings Inc., maker of Ry- Krisp crackers and Ralston Foods cereals, agreed to buy Post cereals from Kraft Foods Inc. in a transaction valued at $2.6 billion. Photographer: JB Reed/ Bloomberg News
Post is buying the cereal business of TreeHouse Foods. (Evan Ramstad — BLOOMBERG NEWS/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Post Holdings is acquiring TreeHouse Foods' cold cereal business, expanding its private-label business.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

The business will be folded into Lakeville-based Post Consumer Brands, the cereal division of St. Louis-based Post Holdings, which already includes MOM Brands, known for Malt-O-Meal and its large bagged cereals.

TreeHouse, based in Chicago, makes cereals, snacks and meals for other companies, usually supermarkets, under their own store brands.

The company's ready-to-eat cereals accounted for $264 million in sales last year. By comparison, Post Consumer Brands reported North American cereal sales of $1.8 billion in 2018.

"We believe that the [ready to eat] business has a wonderful opportunity to flourish under Post's ownership," Steve Oakland, chief executive of TreeHouse Foods, said in a statement.

"Selling the ready-to-eat cereal business allows us to bring greater focus to the TreeHouse organization and represents another step on our portfolio optimization journey," he added.

Post is the nation's third-largest cereal maker, behind Golden Valley-based General Mills and Battle Creek, Mich.-based Kellogg Co.

A spokeswoman for Post Consumer Brands did not respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, Post said the TreeHouse cereals will contribute annual pretax earnings of $15 million to $20 million.

The sale is expected to close this summer.

TreeHouse will close its Minneapolis snack plant

TreeHouse plans to shutter its Minneapolis nuts and trail-mix plant, putting 120 workers out of a job.

The Chicago-based company reported languid sales of snacks in its first-quarter results Thursday.

TreeHouse said it scheduled the closure of the Minneapolis plant for around September "to provide employees with as much notice as possible and to ensure a seamless transition for customers."

about the writer

about the writer

Kristen Leigh Painter

Business Editor

Kristen Leigh Painter is the business editor.

See More

More from Business

card image

The InPen app paves the way for the launch of the company’s “Smart MDI” system combining a smart insulin pen that tracks doses and a monitor that makes real-time glucose readings for people who make multiple daily injections.

card image
card image