TreeHouse Foods to sell its ready-to-eat cereal business

TreeHouse Foods, a North America-based manufacturer and distributor of private label packaged foods and beverages, has entered into an agreement to sell its ready-to-eat cereal business to consumer packaged goods holdings company Post Holdings.

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.

TreeHouse acquired the ready-to-eat cereal business from ConAgra brands in 2016. This transaction is expected to generate $15-20 million before interest and taxes for Post Holdings.

Steve Oakland, CEO and president of TreeHouse Foods, said: “The ready-to-eat cereal category represents nearly $9 billion in revenue at retail, and therefore, the business has a long runway for growth. We believe that the RTE business has a wonderful opportunity to flourish under Post’s ownership.

“Selling the ready-to-eat cereal business allows us to bring greater focus to the TreeHouse organisation and represents another step on our portfolio optimisation journey.”

The ready-to-eat cereal category is seeing growth due to consumers’ increasingly busy lifestyles.

500 employees total will transition from TreeHouse foods to Post Holdings due to the acquisition.