Toddler food company Happy Family, launched on Mother’s Day 2006, announced on Mother’s Day 2013 that Groupe Danone acquired 92 percent ownership of the company “for hundreds of millions of dollars,” as the Wall Street Journal put it.
Every day operations will remain unchanged, with the original two moms — Shazi Visram, founder and CEO, and Jessica Rolph, founding partner and COO — continuing to oversee the business. Visram will be CEO and chairman. A new board of directors will oversee Happy Family, which is owned by Nurture Inc.
The Wall Street Journal reported Danone reached out to Visram in 2012 after they connected through a third party, and that Visram, in her business plan 10 years ago while a student at Columbia Business School, wrote that Danone was an ideal corporate partner for the exit strategy of her company.
“Groupe Danone will assume the role of parent company providing additional resources allowing Happy Family to pioneer even more new products that deliver positive nutrition to babies and toddlers,” read a company statement.
The exact price was not disclosed. Happy Family was often known as Happy Baby, after its first product line.
