Hain Celestial is to launch its Greek Gods yoghurt line in the UK later this year.
The US food group is to list the product, which it sells in the US and Canada, with one of the UK’s largest retailers in the autumn and then prepare for a full launch next spring.
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After expanding its business in the UK last year, Hain Celestial is looking at how it can launch its US brands into the market. Hain Celestial this week announced a deal to buy the spreads business of UK food group Premier Foods plc. Last October, it acquired UK chilled food firm Daniels Group. The two deals, it said this week, will make it the UK’s 40th largest food and drink manufacturer.
“We chose Greek Gods as our first venture with U.S. brands because it obviously is doing fantastically well here in the US and Canada, but it’s also a refrigerated brand, which was our core area of operation,” Rob Burnett, CEO of Hain Celestial’s UK arm Hain Daniels, told analysts after the company announced the Premier deal.
“We’ve got a fantastic co-packer and we’re going to launch with our largest customer in the UK later in the fall and give them a three, four-month exclusivity, look at how it’s doing and then get ready for full national launch in the spring but that trial and our biggest customer will still cover our 15% to 20% of the UK population, so this is a significant trial across all their stores.”
Officials at Hain could not be reached for immediate comment on the identity of the co-packer or the first retailer that will stock Greek Gods.
Hain Celestial acquired Greek Gods in 2010 when it bought US yoghurt firm 3 Greek Gods.
