FLIES IN SOUP
Juice fiasco highlights Loeb’s Campbell woe
Getting cash out of Campbell Soup may be tougher than Dan Loeb thought.
The Camden, NJ-based food giant is struggling to unload its Bolthouse Farms brand in an auction it began this summer — shortly after the billionaire activist investor began prodding the company’s board, sources told The Post.
Campbell, which cut a truce at its annual meeting on Thursday to give Loeb’s hedge fund two board seats, said in August it planned to sell its fresh-foods business, which includes the Bolthouse and Garden Fresh Gourmet brands, after resisting pressure from Loeb to put the entire company on the block.
But the larger Bolthouse unit, which focuses on beverages, hasn’t generated much interest, a source told The Post.
That’s because Bolthouse’s business has proved disappointing since Campbell shelled out $1.5 billion to buy it in 2012.
While its juices are often found in the healthy aisles at grocery stores, health advocates have called out the brand for its use of sugary juice concentrate.
As a result, Campbell in recent weeks is now looking to sell Garden Fresh, a maker of salsa and hummus that it bought for $231 million in 2015, in a separate process, the source said.
“I think there will be interest in Garden Fresh as a separate business,” the source said.
In a statement, Campbell’s communications chief Anthony Sanzio said, “This report is inaccurate. Beyond the company and its investment banker, no-source would have access to the number of potential buyers interested in these assets.”
Another spokesperson did confirmed it had shifted to selling the two units separately, but denied that the fresh-food sale process has been disappointing, saying there was “strong interest” in both businesses from both strategic and financial buyers.
Campbell has already done some reckoning with its fresh-foods business’ poor performance. It has since written down the unit by roughly $1 billion and said it reportedly expects to get as much as $700 million for the division.
Former Bolthouse boss Jeff Dunn was said to be interested in buying Campbell’s fresh-foods business, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Oct 3. It was not clear if Dunn is still interested, and he did not immediately respond to requests to comment.
Campbell has come under fire in recent months for poor performance due in part to not responding quickly to changing trends.
Loeb had initially pushed to overhaul the full board and put the company up for sale but dialed back after learning there weren’t buyers. He has since focused on revitalizing Campbell’s ailing soup brand.
While Loeb and Campbell are eager to get to work quickly, one shareholder at Thursday’s meeting noted the company already missed a marketing opportunity.