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.
Katherine Muller, Cultivate Ventures, The Hain Celestial Group, 516-587-5778, Katherine.Muller@hain.com
