Campbell Soup selling off its Emerald Nuts snack brand

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Campbell Soup Co. is selling its Emerald Nuts snack brand to Flagstone Foods, one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of private label healthy snacks in North America.

In a May 30 press release announcing the planned sale, the Camden-headquartered soup and snack giant neither disclosed financial terms of the deal nor did it say when the transaction is expected to close.

Emerald Nuts – which is known for its grab-and-go 100 calorie packs and assorted glazed nut products – was added to Campbell’s portfolio as part of the company’s $6.1 billion acquisition of Synders-Lance Inc. in 2018.

According to Campbell, the brand generated net sales of $66 million in Fiscal Year 2022 and $46 million for the nine-month period ending April 30, 2023.

The company said it does not expect the divestiture to have a material impact to its FY 2023 financial results nor is the transaction anticipated to be dilutive to earnings per share by $0.01 in fiscal 2024.

Chris Foley, executive vice president and president of Campbell Snacks, said, “The sale of the Emerald business is part of our ongoing strategic process to create greater focus on driving accelerated growth across our Snacks division and power brands.”

In addition to Synder’s pretzels and Lance cracker sandwiches, Campbell’s snacks division includes Pepperidge Farm products, Late July snacks, Cape Code potato chips, Kettle potato chips and Snack Factory Pretzel Crisps.

The upcoming sale of Emerald Nuts comes as Campbell embarks on a $50 million plan to upgrade and expand its headquarters amid a consolidation of the company’s snack businesses from Connecticut and North Carolina. 

In a statement, Harry Overly, chief executive officer of Minneapolis, Minn.-based Flagstone Foods, said, “Adding Emerald Nuts to our portfolio establishes a new avenue for Flagstone to service our customers with innovative snack products and unites two industry leaders with a shared commitment to the highest levels of product quality and innovation.”

“Our Flagstone team is excited to welcome Emerald as a transformative acquisition to our portfolio and we’re looking forward to continuing to drive growth for both Flagstone and our retail partners,” said Overly, who was brought on as CEO in late 2022 to accelerate the company’s growth as a snacking solutions provider.

Atlas Holdings-owned Flagstone Foods sources, processes, packages and distributes nuts, trail mixes and other healthy snacks for the nation’s top retailers in the club, mass, grocery, drug and convenience channels.

The company employs more than 800 workers across its three processing plants in Robersonville, N.C.; El Paso, Texas; and Dothan, Ala.