PepsiCo has agreed a deal to acquire US firm Bare Snacks for an undisclosed sum.
The US food major, home to products including Lay’s potato chips and Quaker cereal, is set to buy a business centred on what it calls “better-for-you” snacks. CNBC, citing a source, said PepsiCo paid less than US$200m for the company.
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Bare Snacks, based in California, was set up in 2001 by a family-owned organic apple farm in Washington, that began selling packaged baked apple chips in local farmers’ markets. The company has attracted various private-equity investors since its formation; its current shareholders include venture capital group NGEN.
Its product range now also includes banana and coconut snacks, while it has recently expanded into vegetable chips.
Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo’s chairman and CEO, said Bare Snacks “fits perfectly” with “Performance with Purpose”, the US behemoth’s “vision of making more nutritious products”.
She added: “The Bare Snacks leadership team has done an outstanding job building a top-tier organisation and a strong brand with authentic roots, and I couldn’t be more excited to welcome Bare Snacks to the PepsiCo family.”
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By GlobalDataPepsiCo said Bare Snacks would “continue to operate independently” from its own headquarters in San Francisco, with its management reporting into Frito-Lay North America, PepsiCo’s domestic snacks division.
Santosh Padki, the CEO of Bare Foods, said the firm had a “mission of bringing simplicity to snacking”.
Padki, whose career includes time at Source Food Technology and Ruiz Foods, joined Bare Snacks in 2015.
“With a shared passion for crunchy, better-for-you snacks, PepsiCo is the right partner to help bring our simply baked fruit and vegetable snacks to even more consumers across the world and continue to grow our brand,” Padki said.
