Procter & Gamble has signed a definitive agreement to sell its Pringles business to San Francisco-based Diamond Foods in a transaction valued at $2.35 billion.
Pringles will join Diamond brands that include Pop Secret popcorn, Kettle chips, and Diamond of California and Emerald nuts. The combination will more than triple the size of Diamond’s snack business, creating a company with total revenues of some $2.4 billion.
For P&G, the Pringles sale represents the first time in some 150 years that the Cincinnati-based company has not owned a food-based business. Once the parent company of brands such as Folgers coffee, Duncan Hines cake mixes, JIF peanut butter and Sunny Delight juice drinks, P&G has gradually been selling off those businesses in order to focus on its household and health/beauty lines.
Approximately 1,600 employees are involved in the Pringles business, with about 900 in the United States and 150 in the Cincinnati area. Diamond has indicated that some duplicative administrative positions will be eliminated after the sale closes, though no specific numbers have been released.
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