LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y.,
Nov. 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hain Celestial Group, Inc.
(Nasdaq: HAIN), a leading organic and natural products company
with operations in North America,
Europe and India providing consumers with A Healthier Way
of Life™, today announced the official launch of its
Cultivate Ventures ("Cultivate") platform. The new strategic
platform within Hain Celestial is dedicated to investing behind
lifestyle brands, smaller portfolio brands and concepts as well as
incubator opportunities, which should benefit from the larger scale
and leverage of Hain Celestial's infrastructure and entrepreneurial
roots while contributing to net sales and margin growth.
The Company plans (i) to strategically invest with a dedicated,
creative focus for refresh and relaunch; (ii) to incubate small
acquisitions until they reach the scale for the Company's core
platforms; and (iii) to invest in lifestyle brands, concepts,
products and technology, which focus on health and wellness.
Cultivate's brands include:
- BluePrint®: A pioneer of cold-pressed juices,
juice drinks and functional beverages.
- DeBoles®: A full line of pastas including
whole wheat featuring Jerusalem
artichoke flour and gluten-free varieties made with rice, corn and
quinoa grains that are undeniably nutritious and delicious.
- GG® Unique Fiber: Slow-baked crisp, hearty
fiber-rich crackers made with wheat bran and whole grain rye
flour.
- SunSpire®: Confectionery line including
snacking and baking products that are certified organic and made
with Fair Trade certified cocoa ingredients.
- Tilda®: Pure basmati rice and other grain
products.
- Yves Veggie Cuisine®: Full line of meat-free products
for the health conscious consumer including nutritious vegan and
vegetarian options.
Cultivate will utilize several teams, including marketing,
sales and supply chain, to reinvigorate its brands. Taking the
entrepreneurial mindset to heart, the teams are charged with
treating each brand as a startup, to quickly innovate concepts,
product lines and categories.
Beena Goldenberg has been
appointed Chief Executive Officer of Cultivate reporting to
Irwin Simon. In addition to
her current role as Chief Executive Officer of Hain Celestial
Canada, she will oversee Cultivate's mission to grow strategic
investments and act as an incubator of small acquisitions until
they reach scale for inclusion in the Company's core
platforms: Fresh Living; Better-for-You Baby; Better-for-You
Snacking, Better-for-You Pantry and Pure Personal Care.
"Since Hain Celestial's inception, we have invested in health
and wellness brands and concepts, giving them the infrastructure to
grow. We formed Cultivate Ventures to bring that legacy to our high
potential brands, investing in teams with support and focus to help
them thrive," said Irwin D. Simon,
Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hain Celestial.
"Beena is now responsible for all aspects of Cultivate, including
defining strategic direction, top-line revenue and profitability.
Teams that include marketing, sales and supply chain
functions will work with Beena to develop Cultivate and catalyze
growth of the brands, along with identifying smaller acquisition
and investment targets. These brands will benefit from Beena's
proven track record in growing our Canadian subsidiary—both
organically and through acquisitions over the past decade."
"Cultivate Ventures will renew our Company's entrepreneurial
spirit and reaffirm Hain Celestial's position as the leader to
create and inspire consumers with 'A Healthier Way of Life,'"
said Beena Goldenberg, Chief
Executive Officer of Cultivate Ventures and Hain Celestial Canada.
"Cultivate will rely on key learnings from Hain Celestial's history
of growing acquisitions by offering smaller brands access to our
unique sourcing opportunities, manufacturing facilities and best
practices in marketing and distribution in the natural and organic
industry."
During fiscal year 2016 the wholly-owned Cultivate brands
generated approximately $70 million
in net sales. Cultivate will be managed under the Rest of
World segment along with Hain Celestial Canada and Hain Celestial
Europe. The Company expects the brands will require investment and
be neutral in earnings contribution in fiscal year 2017. As
previously announced, the Company has also identified certain
brands representing approximately $30
million in net sales that no longer fit into its core
strategy for future growth, which it plans to divest.
The Hain Celestial Group, Inc.
The Hain Celestial
Group (Nasdaq: HAIN), headquartered in Lake Success, NY, is a leading organic and
natural products company with operations in North America, Europe and India. Hain Celestial
participates in many natural categories with well-known brands that
include Celestial Seasonings®, Earth's Best®, Ella's Kitchen®,
Terra®, Garden of Eatin'®, Sensible Portions®, Health Valley®,
Arrowhead Mills®, MaraNatha®, SunSpire®, DeBoles®, Casbah®, Rudi's
Organic Bakery®, Hain Pure Foods®, Spectrum®, Spectrum Essentials®,
Imagine®, Almond Dream®, Rice Dream®, Soy Dream®, WestSoy®, The
Greek Gods®, BluePrint®, FreeBird®, Plainville Farms®, Empire®,
Kosher Valley®, Yves Veggie Cuisine®, Europe's Best®, Cully & Sully®, New Covent
Garden Soup Co.®, Johnson's Juice Co.®, Farmhouse Fare®,
Hartley's®, Sun-Pat®, Gale's®, Robertson's®, Frank Cooper's®, Linda McCartney®, Lima®,
Danival®, Joya®, Natumi®, GG UniqueFiber®, Tilda®, JASON®, Avalon
Organics®, Alba Botanica®, Live Clean® and Queen Helene®.
Hain Celestial has been providing A Healthier Way of Life™ since
1993. For more information, visit www.hain.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
Certain statements contained in
this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Forward-looking statements are predictions based on
expectations and projections about future events, and are not
statements of historical fact. You can identify forward-looking
statements by the use of forward-looking terminology such as
"plan", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "predict",
"project", "estimate", "likely", "believe", "might", "seek", "may",
"remain", "potential", "can", "should", "could", "future" and
similar expressions, or the negative of those expressions. These
forward-looking statements include the Company's beliefs or
expectations relating to the Company's growth trends, initiatives
and strategies with respect to Cultivate Ventures. Such
forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual
results, levels of activity, performance or achievements of the
Company, or industry results, to be materially different from any
future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such
factors include, among others, general economic and financial
market conditions; competition; our ability to respond to changes
and trends in customer and consumer demand, preferences and
consumption; our reliance on third party distributors,
manufacturers and suppliers; the consolidation or loss of a
significant customer; our ability to introduce new products and
improve existing products; availability and retention of key
personnel; our ability to effectively integrate our acquisitions;
our ability to successfully consummate any proposed divestitures;
liabilities arising from potential product recalls, market
withdrawals or product liability claims; outbreaks of diseases or
food-borne illnesses; potential litigation; the availability of
organic and natural ingredients; our ability to manage our supply
chain effectively; changes in fuel, raw material and commodity
costs; effects of climate change on our business and operations;
our ability to offset input cost increases; the interruption,
disruption or loss of operations at one or more of our
manufacturing facilities; the loss of one or more of our
independent co-packers; the disruption of our transportation
systems; risks associated with expansion into countries in which we
have no prior operating experience; risks associated with our
international sales and operations, including foreign currency
risks; impairment in the carrying value of our goodwill or other
intangible assets; our ability to use our trademarks; reputational
damage; changes in, or the failure to comply with, government laws
and regulations; liabilities or claims with respect to
environmental matters; our reliance on independent certification
for our products; a breach of security measures; our reliance on
our information technology systems; effects of general global
capital and credit market issues on our liquidity and cost of
borrowing; potential liabilities not covered by insurance; the
ability of joint venture investments to successfully execute
business plans; dilution in the value of our common shares; and the
other risks detailed from time-to-time in the Company's reports
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the
annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015. As a result of the foregoing and
other factors, no assurance can be given as to the future results,
levels of activity and achievements of the Company, and neither the
Company nor any person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and
completeness of these statements.
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SOURCE The Hain Celestial Group, Inc.