BloombergNestle SA is selling its US ice cream business that includes brands such as Haagen-Dazs and Drumstick to a joint venture with private equity firm PAI Partners for US$4 billion. The venture, Froneri, was created in 2016 when the Swiss company merged its European ice cream business with PAI-owned R&R. The US ice cream business being divested had sales of US$1.8 billion last year, while Froneri had revenue of 2.9 billion Swiss francs (US$2.95 billion), Nestle said. The deal would give Froneri a 10 percent global market share, compared with Unilever’s 18 percent, Bloomberg Intelligence said, citing Euromonitor data. The ice cream deal also follows Nestle’s decision to cut about 4,000 jobs linked to the direct delivery system of frozen pizza and ice cream to stores, and instead transition to a warehouse model to lower costs.

Source: Taipei Times December 12, 2019 15:56 UTC