FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HAIN CELESTIAL CLOSES ON SENSIBLE PORTIONS® BRAND ACQUISITION
Expands Healthy Snack Offerings and Club Store Distribution
Jason Cohen Appointed President Hain Celestial Club Division
Acquisition Expected to be Accretive in First Quarter Beginning July 1, 2010
MELVILLE, NY – June 15, 2010 – The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAIN), a leading natural and organic products company providing consumers with A Healthy Way of LifeTM, today announced the acquisition of the assets and business of World Gourmet Marketing, L.L.C., including its Sensible Portions® brand of Garden Veggie StrawsTM, Pita Bites® and other snack products. Sensible Portions’ products are sold in the club, mass and supermarket channels. The transaction is expected to be accretive to Hain Celestial’s earnings during the first quarter of its fiscal year 2011.
“We are excited about adding Sensible Portions snack products to our portfolio of brands, and we welcome Jason Cohen and Jerry Bello with their proven track record of building a successful business,” said Irwin D. Simon, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hain Celestial. “We view this as a strategic acquisition for both companies, combining Hain Celestial’s impressive group of brands and management team with World Gourmet’s history of developing and marketing innovative products, particularly in the club store channel. We look forward to building a strong club business for many of our Hain Celestial brands as we plan to present a full portfolio of products to the club store channel alongside Sensible Portions.”
“As co-founders of the Sensible Portions brand and World Gourmet Marketing L.L.C., Jerry Bello and I are very excited about joining the management team of Hain Celestial,” said Jason Cohen. “We see a tremendous opportunity to leverage our knowledge and experience within the club store channel to create incremental sales for Hain Celestial’s brands.”
World Gourmet Co-Founder Jason Cohen will serve as President of Hain Celestial’s Club Division, reporting to John Carroll, Chief Executive Officer of Hain Celestial United States. In this capacity, Mr. Cohen will be responsible for sales of all Hain Celestial brands into the club channel. World Gourmet Co- Founder Jerry Bello will serve as Vice President, Snacks and Corporate Innovation, reporting to Mr. Cohen. In this capacity Mr. Bello will lead the development and innovation of snack foods with dynamic new concepts for various Hain Celestial brands from the Sensible Portions Lancaster, Pennsylvania facility.
Terms of the acquisition, which closed today, were not disclosed.
THE HAIN CELESTIAL GROUP
The Hain Celestial Group (NASDAQ: HAIN), headquartered in Melville, NY, is a leading natural and organic products company in North America and Europe. Hain Celestial participates in many natural categories with well-known brands that include Celestial Seasonings®, Terra®, Garden of Eatin®, Health Valley®, WestSoy®, Earth’s Best®, Arrowhead Mills®, MaraNatha®, SunSpire®, DeBoles®, Gluten Free CaféTM, Hain Pure Foods®, Hollywood®, Spectrum Naturals®, Spectrum Essentials®, Walnut Acres Organic®, Imagine®, Almond Dream®, Rice Dream®, Soy Dream®, Rosetto®, Ethnic Gourmet®, Yves Veggie Cuisine®, Granose®, Realeat®, Linda McCartney®, Daily BreadTM, Lima®, Grains Noirs®, Natumi®, JASON®, Zia® Natural Skincare, Avalon Organics®, Alba Botanica®, Queen Helene®, Tushies®, TenderCare® and Martha Stewart CleanTM. Hain Celestial has been providing “A Healthy Way of LifeTM” since 1993. For more information, visit www.hain-celestial.com.
WORLD GOURMET MARKETING, L.L.C.
World Gourmet Marketing, LLC has been developing and marketing gourmet snacks since 2002. Produced under the company’s premier brand Sensible Portions®, World Gourmet products include all-natural and lower-calorie snacks such as Garden Veggie StrawsTM, Potato Straws, Apple StrawsTM, Miner’s Gold®, Pita Bites® and Multi Grain Crisps. Available internationally, these products are marketed under the World Gourmet and Sensible Portions brands and are sold through grocery, deli, warehouse club, vending and other channels of distribution.
SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT
This press release contains forward-looking statements under Rule 3b-6 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Words such as “expect,” “expected”, “anticipate,” “estimate,” “believe,” “may,” “potential,” “can,” “position”, “positioned,” “should,” “plan,” “continue”, “future”, “look forward” and similar expressions, or the negative of those expressions, may identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which could cause our actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include our expectations relating to the acquisition of the Sensible Portions business and the potential improvements to the Company’s earnings resulting therefrom. These risks include but are not limited to our ability to achieve our guidance for net sales and earnings per share in fiscal year 2010 given the recessionary environment in the U.S. and other markets that we sell products as well as economic and business conditions generally and their effect on our customers and consumers’ product preferences, and our business, financial condition and results of operations; changes in estimates or judgments related to our impairment analysis of goodwill and other intangible assets as well as with respect to our valuation allowances of our deferred tax assets; our ability to implement our business and acquisition strategy, including our strategy for improving results in Europe; Hain Pure Protein’s ability to implement its business strategy; our ability to realize sustainable growth generally and from investments in core brands, offering new products and our focus on cost containment, productivity, cash flow and margin enhancement in particular; our ability to effectively integrate our acquisitions; our ability to successfully execute our joint ventures; competition; the success and cost of introducing new products as well as our ability to increase prices on existing products; the availability and retention of key personnel; our reliance on third party distributors, manufacturers and suppliers; our ability to maintain existing contracts and secure and integrate new customers; our ability to respond to changes and trends in customer and consumer demand, preferences and consumption; international sales and operations; changes in fuel and commodity costs; the effects on our results of operations from impacts of foreign exchange; changes in, or the failure to comply with, government regulations; and other risks detailed from time-to-time in the Company’s reports filed with the SEC, including the annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2009 and the quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2009. As a result of the foregoing and other factors, no assurance can be given as to future results, levels of activity and achievements and neither the Company nor any person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of these statements.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Ira Lamel/Mary Anthes
The Hain Celestial Group, Inc.
631-730-2200
