Campbell Soup has agreed to sell fresh-food unit Bolthouse Farms to an investment group that includes Bolthouse’s former chief.
Bolthouse, whose products include the leading national brand of baby-cut carrots, is being sold for $510 million to Butterfly Equity, a private-capital firm based in Los Angeles. Campbell bought Bolthouse in 2012 for $1.55 billion.
Butterfly will return Bolthouse to the control of Jeff Dunn, who was CEO at the time of the 2012 acquisition. Dunn continued to run the company under Campbell until leaving in 2016.
“Bolthouse Farms holds a special place in the produce industry and my team and I are deeply committed to strengthening and broadening Bolthouse Farms’ unique legacy,” Dunn said in a statement. “We can’t wait to get started.”
The sale is part of Campbell’s current strategy to divest what it perceives as non-core businesses acquired under former CEO Denise Morrison. Other sales of fresh-food units include a refrigerated soup plant and its Garden Fresh Gourmet unit and plant, both in the last two months.
