In the chips: Cereal giant Kellogg snaps up Pringles
Kellogg is hoping Pringles will satisfy its craving for a salty snack.
The food giant is best known for its lineup of sweet breakfast items, including Frosted Flakes and Eggo frozen waffles. But on Wednesday, it became the world’s second-biggest savory snack maker behind PepsiCo Inc.’s Frito-Lay with a $2.7 billion deal to buy the potato snack brand from Procter & Gamble.
The addition of Pringles bolsters Kellogg Co.’s cupboard of salty snacks such as Cheez-It and Keebler’s Club crackers. It also positions the company to expand at a time when the appetite for on-the-go foods is growing worldwide, particularly in emerging markets like China.
“When you have people moving to the cities and becoming urbanized, they’re less likely to eat foods they grow themselves,” said Tom Graves, an analyst for Standard & Poor’s who follows Kellogg. “There’s a bigger opportunity to sell packaged foods.”
Kellogg, which gets most of its revenue from North America, is looking for Pringles to help it expand into a global snacking company. Pringles, known for its iconic tube packaging, is sold in more than 150 countries and gets two-thirds of its $1.5 billion in annual revenue from overseas.
P&G wanted to sell Pringles, the last of its food businesses, to focus on its core household and consumer goods products. Kellogg was able to swoop in to buy Pringles from P&G. after Diamond Foods Inc.’s proposed $1.5 billion acquisition of the brand fell through.
Kellogg expects to complete the Pringles acquisition over the summer, possibly on June 30.