France’s Bonduelle Group – owner of Ready Pac salads in the U.S. – is selling its packaged salad businesses in France and Germany and “reviewing the value of its salad business assets in North America” – the latter apparently only an accounting procedure.
America’s Taylor Farms is negotiating to buy the business in Germany.
“For the past 10 years, the Bonduelle Group has faced a structural decline in salad consumption in France and Germany, exacerbated by inflation and increased competition from private labels,” the company wrote in an Aug. 29 announcement. “This has led to a steady decline in the results of the fresh packaged salad business in these countries.”
So the company is in exclusive negotiations with Taylor Farms for the acquisition of its packaged salad business in Germany, and with Les Crudettes, a company of LSDH Group, for the business in France.
The last line in the news release added: “In addition, the group is currently reviewing the value of its salad business assets in North America, the impact of which would be recorded in the consolidated financial statements of June 30, 2024.” A company spokesperson said that's "a standard accounting procedure, and Bonduelle Group has no plans to sell the U.S. business. We are confident in our ability to succeed in the U.S. market and are committed to investing and driving growth in North America."
Back to the news release: "These projects are necessary to preserve jobs within the Bonduelle Group's sites in France and Europe. They will shift focus to Bonduelle’s other business operations to enable the group to continue accelerating its activities in the fresh delicatessen, canned and frozen food markets in these territories.
“The North American and Italian fresh businesses are not impacted by these projects. They operate under different market dynamics and will continue to manage and develop their activities in both fresh cut salad and delicatessen categories.”
Bonduelle bought Ready Pac Foods and its four American production facilities in 2017.
