United Natural Foods, Inc. has announced that it will be acquiring distributor and natural, organic, and ethnic food distributor Haddon House Food Products, Inc. for approximately $217.5 million.
“Haddon House has a unique product and service offering that we expect to play an important role in our ongoing strategy to build out UNFI's gourmet and ethnic product categories across the country,” said Steven Spinner, UNFI’s President and CEO. “We are excited to have them join the UNFI family as we venture into new channels and markets together. I look forward to working with David Anderson, Sr. and David Anderson, Jr., both of whom will remain at the company in leadership roles, as we move this exciting service offering and product category across our companies and throughout the U.S..”
Founded in 1960 by the Anderson family, Haddon distributes and merchandises natural, organic, and gourmet ethnic products throughout the Eastern United States. According to UNFI, Haddon has a diverse, multi-channel customer base including conventional supermarkets, gourmet food stores and independently owned product retailers.
“This transaction will provide us with greater operating scale and resources to further develop our product and service offering as we work with the UNFI team to broaden our geographic reach and route to market across complementary and new customer bases,” stated David Anderson, Sr., President, Haddon House Food Products, Inc. in a press release. “We are excited about the opportunities this combination will create for consumers, employees, suppliers, and our stockholders.”
While the transaction is still subject to regulatory approval, the companies expect it to close at the start of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016.
