Nestle has sold its Carnation canned milk brands and business in Canada to the Canadian wing of U.S. jam giant J.M Smucker.
The sale includes the Carnation business in Canada, the rights to use the Carnation brand for its evaporated milk, skim milk powder and thick cream products in Canada, and a manufacturing plant at Sherbrooke, Que., with 29 employees.
Carnation’s annual net sales in Canada run around $50 million, Smucker said. J.M. Smucker’s co-CEO, Tim Smucker, said in a release that Carnation will add to the company’s portfolio in the baking aisle, which in Canada includes Robin Hood, Five Roses, Crisco and Eagle Brand.
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“The addition of the Carnation milk brand, with its long history and leading position, is an excellent fit with our strategy of owning and marketing leading North American food brands,” he said.
Those brands in North America also already include Smucker’s, Pillsbury, Jif, R.W. Knudsen, White Lily, Hungry Jack and Martha White, as well as the Bick’s pickle brand in Canada.
Nestle Canada’s asking price was not disclosed, but Smucker said it expected the Carnation business to add about $30 million in net sales for the rest of this year and be “slightly accretive to earnings.”
The Carnation company, which dates back to Kent, Washington in 1899, was taken over by Swiss-based Nestle in 1985.
