Hain Pure Protein expected to sell in multiple deals

Hain Celestial’s divestiture of its Hain Pure Protein (HPP) poultry business is taking longer than originally anticipated, because the company is looking at selling the subsidiary in more than one transaction.

Roy Graber Headshot
(Hain Celestial)
(Hain Celestial)

Hain Celestial’s divestiture of its Hain Pure Protein (HPP) poultry business is taking longer than originally anticipated, because the company is looking at selling the subsidiary in more than one transaction.

Speaking during the Hain Celestial quarterly earnings call on February 7, the company’s chief financial officer, James Langrock, said he expects the divestiture of Hain Pure Protein to take place over “the next several months.”

“We have active buyers and some preliminary term sheets,” Langrock explained. “The process is taking a bit longer than we expected, but we’ve made significant progress on the process. We’ve also slowed it down a little bit as we had originally anticipated selling HPP in its entirety, and now we expect multiple transactions.”

Langrock did not elaborate on how the company might be divided, but HPP does include both broiler and turkey operations. It’s key brand for chicken is FreeBird, while its key brand for turkey is Plainville Farms.

Langrock’s comments come about one year after Hain Celestial first announced its intent to divest of HPP. At the time, Hain Celestial founder and then-CEO Irwin Simon said he felt that HPP would potentially be better suited to be part of a larger animal protein company. Simon retired as CEO in November 2018, and has been succeeded by Mark L. Schiller.

Hain Pure Protein second quarter results

Also during the earnings call, the financial results of HPP for the second quarter of fiscal year 2019 were announced.

Net sales for the poultry subsidary in the second quarter were $147.2 million, a decrease of 7 percent when compared to the same period of the prior year. The segment’s operating loss in the second quarter was $59.6 million and included a $54.9 million pre-tax non-cash impairment charge.

The second quarter of fiscal year 2019 concluded on December 31, 2018.

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