C&C Group snaps up second largest cider brand in North America
LIQUOR NEWS
Drinks Business Review - Nov 9th 2011, 15:53
Irish beer & cider specialist C&C Group has acquired the Hornsby's Hard Cider brand from North America's E & J Gallo Winery for a cash consideration of up to €20m. The transaction includes trademarks, inventory, formulas and global rights to the second largest North American cider brand.
The transaction has completed for an initial cash consideration of €16.4m. An additional consideration of up to €3.6m is payable subject to the performance of the business in the period to April 2012.
C&C is the manufacturer of Magners, a premium international cider brand, Magners, Bulmers, an Irish cider brand, and the Gaymer Cider Company range of branded and private label ciders.
Produced at Gallo's winery in California, Hornsby's Hard Cider comes in two flavor variants, Amber Draft and Crisp Apple. Both are exclusively distributed through the off-trade in a 330ml glass bottle format.
Hornsby's currently boasts a 35% share of the off-trade cider category by volume. With this acquisition, C&C believes that there is significant opportunity to grow its US business and also strengthen the group's strong footprint in the UK and Ireland markets.
E & J Gallo Winery Value and Spirits business units VP and GM Peter Abate said while hard cider is becoming more popular in the US, the company is increasingly focused on wine and spirits which is why it made the decision to sell.
Post sale, the two companies will work together for the next year on the transition over to C&C which includes Gallo assisting with the product processing and distribution.
C&C also distributes a number of beer brands in the Scottish, Irish and Northern Irish markets, primarily for global brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Based in California, E & J Gallo Winery has seven wineries strategically located in California's wine regions and access to grapes from vineyards in all of the premier grape-growing areas of the state.
Gallo produces wines in every category and imports wines from eight of the major wine growing countries in the world.
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