The Hain Celestial Group Inc., Lake Success, N.Y., an organic and natural products company, acquired Rudi’s Organic Bakery Inc., an organic and gluten-free company in Boulder, Colo. Under the Rudi's Organic Bakery and Rudi's Gluten-Free Bakery brands, Rudi's offers approximately 60 products, including organic breads, buns, bagels, tortillas, wraps and soft pretzels certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and natural breads, buns, pizza crusts, tortillas, snack bars and stuffing certified by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO).

In 2013, Rudi's generated approximately $60 million in net sales and is expected to be accretive to Hain Celestial's earnings in fiscal year 2015. The purchase price of $61.3 million consisted of cash and common shares of Hain Celestial. Rudi's was a portfolio company of Charterhouse Equity Partners LLC.

"We are very excited by the strategic acquisition of Rudi's, a leading certified organic bread brand, which expands our participation into 11 of the top 20 natural categories in the United States,” says Irwin D. Simon, founder, president and CEO of Hain Celestial. “At Hain Celestial, we look for the latest trends, and consumers are increasing their purchases of whole grains, organic and gluten-free product offerings. As a company committed to driving product innovation, we plan to build upon Rudi's leadership position and see the opportunity to take Rudi's into other categories where the brand does not have products today. We have a proven ability to expand great brands and products into various channels of distribution including the conventional, mass and club channels, where we see significant opportunities for increased distribution. We expect to deliver significant synergies through top line sales and bottom line cost efficiencies by effectively leveraging the platform of Hain Celestial US, as we have successfully demonstrated with previous acquisitions."

"I am thrilled for all of the employees of Rudi's that we are joining the Hain Celestial family!” says Jane S. Miller, president and CEO of Rudi's. “They are a leader in organic and natural products, and this will be the perfect home for our brand, an industry icon since 1976.”

Source: The Hain Celestial Group, PRNewswire