{"id":656273,"date":"2013-05-06T12:01:49","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T16:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pehub.com\/?p=200202"},"modified":"2013-05-06T12:01:49","modified_gmt":"2013-05-06T16:01:49","slug":"organic-salad-producer-earthbound-farm-prepped-for-sale-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/656273","title":{"rendered":"Organic salad producer Earthbound Farm prepped for sale -sources"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earthbound Farm Organic<\/strong>, the largest grower of organic produce in the United States, is exploring a sale of the company, Reuters is reporting. Earthbound Farm, which is backed by Kainos Capital<\/strong>, has hired Barclays to sell the company, Reuters says.<\/p>\n

(Reuters) – Earthbound Farm Organic<\/strong>, the largest grower of organic produce in the United States, is exploring a sale of the company, according to four sources familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

The San Juan Bautista, California-based company, whose investors include private equity firm Kainos Capital<\/strong>, has hired Barclay<\/strong>s to sell the company in a deal that could be worth $600 million to $700 million, the sources said on Monday.<\/p>\n

The sale process is in the early stages, the sources said. The company has roughly $75 million in annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), the sources said.<\/p>\n

In 2012, revenue topped $460 million, according to Moody’s.<\/p>\n

Fresh produce is typically regarded as a lower-margin business compared with processed foods because fresh goods are perishable and have high distribution costs.<\/p>\n

However, recent deals in the organic foods sector have commanded high multiples. In July 2012, high-end juice maker Bolthouse Foods was acquired by Campbell Soup Co for $1.6 billion, about 11 times EBITDA.<\/p>\n

That compares with a multiple of around 9 for recent transactions in the food and beverage sector, according to accounting and consulting firm Grant Thornton.<\/p>\n

Earthbound Farm and Kainos Capital could not be reached for comment. Barclays declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Dallas-based Kainos Capital is a new firm made up of executives from HM Capital’s food and consumer products group. HM Capital, a private equity firm, said last year that it was winding down. HM Capital acquired about 70 percent of Earthbound Farm in July 2009.<\/p>\n

Earthbound Farm grows and packages items including salads, vegetables and fruit. Founded in 1984 on a 2.5-acre backyard garden in Carmel Valley, California, it has since expanded to 26,000 acres.<\/p>\n

The company was the first to sell pre-washed bagged salads, which are now available in 75 percent of all U.S. supermarkets, including retailers such as Costco Wholesale Corp, Walmart Stores Inc and Whole Foods Market Inc.<\/p>\n

The post Organic salad producer Earthbound Farm prepped for sale -sources<\/a> appeared first on peHUB<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Earthbound Farm Organic, the largest grower of organic produce in the United States, is exploring a sale of the company, Reuters is reporting. Earthbound Farm, which is backed by Kainos Capital, has hired Barclays to sell the company, Reuters says. (Reuters) – Earthbound Farm Organic, the largest grower of organic produce in the United States, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7428,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-656273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7428"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}