Kellogg considers selling Keebler and Famous Amos cookie brands

Kellogg is exploring the sale of its cookies and fruit snacks businesses so it can focus on the core parts of the company.

Brands which may be put up for sale include Keebler, Famous Amos, Mother’s, Murray and Stretch Island.

Kellogg has also announced plans to consolidate its US morning foods, snacks and frozen foods unit into a single, categories-focused organisation, comprising 80% of Kellogg North America (KNA) revenue.

The company will combine its morning foods, snacks and frozen and retail channels sales teams within a single Kellogg US sales organisation, a move to improve customer focus.

Kellogg CEO Steve Cahillane said: “Kellogg Company’s deploy for growth strategy, announced earlier this year, calls for the company to sharpen our focus and align our resources around our biggest opportunities to grow our top line and return to long-term sustainable growth. Ultimately, we believe these changes will make Kellogg more agile and better focused on growing demand for our foods.”

He added: “We need to make strategic choices about our business and these brands have had difficulty competing for resources and investments within our portfolio. Yet, we wholeheartedly believe these iconic and beloved brands can thrive in the portfolio of another organisation that can focus on driving growth in these particular categories.”

KNA president Chris Hood said: “Successfully achieving our deploy for growth strategy in KNA requires that we grow our business through strong commercial ideas and innovation, prioritised investment choices, excellence in execution and increased speed-to-market. We are confident the changes we are putting in place will help us achieve these objectives.”

The reorganisation of KNA is one of the final planned initiatives under the company’s Project K restructuring initiative. As such, its up-front costs and ongoing savings are included in the previously communicated financial estimates for the five-year Project K programme. 

In its most recent quarterly results, Kellogg saw its revenue grow 6.8%, as it benefitted from the acquisitions of snack brand Rxbar and Nigerian distributor Multipro.