US-based baking company Flower Foods has acquired the perpetual, exclusive, and royalty-free licenses to the Sara Lee and Earthgrains brands for sliced breads, buns, and rolls in California from Grupo Bimbo's subsidiary BBU for an undisclosed amount.
The move will reinforce Flower Foods' market presence in California, adding about 14.5 million people to the 70% of US citizens that presently have access to the company's breads and rolls brands.
Flowers Foods chairman of the board and CEO George E. Deese said that the company has been working to ensure a smooth transition of these brands in California.
"Now that the transaction has closed, the rollout of Sara Lee and Earthgrains products on our distribution routes will begin immediately in Southern California and continue northward in phases over the coming months," Deese said.
On 26 October 2012, Flowers Foods announced that the US had approved this agreement and a separate one for the acquisition of the license to the Earthgrains brand for bakery products in the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, which was completed in 2012.
Combined with the California agreement, the brands are expected to generate about $134m in annual revenues.
Flowers Foods, headquartered in Georgia, US, operates 44 facilities that produce a broad range of bakery products under brands such as Nature's Own, Tastykake, and Mrs. Freshley's.
