Smucker had been seeking to divest Multifoods’ commercial division to focus on its consumer brands. Best Brands Corp., a supplier of bakery products and ingredients, based in Eagan, Minn. proved a complementary fit for Multifoods’ bakery products. The Multifoods business adds muffin and other specialty product lines to Best Brands’ core focus in cake and laminated dough products.
Best Brands, owned by a consortium of shareholders including Value Creation Partners Inc., acquired the Multifoods division for about $43 million, according to its investment bankers Brown Gibbons Lang & Co.
The Multifoods brand will continue under the new ownership.
Multifoods’ Gourmet Baker Divine Centers™ Muffins were recently awarded the Grand Prix New Product Award by the International Foodservice Distributors Association and Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors. Its carrot cream cheese and Devil’s food cream cheese muffins won the bakery category for exceptional new products in foodservice. The muffins feature cream cheese filling and nut toppings and also are available in blueberry and strawberry cream cheese varieties.