Hain Celestial Closes on Sensible Portions Brand Acquisition

Sensible Portions' products are sold in the club, mass and supermarket channels. The transaction is expected to be accretive to Hain Celestial's earnings during the first quarter of its fiscal year 2011.

16 Jun 2010 --- Hain Celestial Group, Inc. has announced the acquisition of the assets and business of World Gourmet Marketing, L.L.C., including its Sensible Portions brand of Garden Veggie Straws, Pita Bites and other snack products. Sensible Portions' products are sold in the club, mass and supermarket channels. The transaction is expected to be accretive to Hain Celestial's earnings during the first quarter of its fiscal year 2011.

"We are excited about adding Sensible Portions snack products to our portfolio of brands, and we welcome Jason Cohen and Jerry Bello with their proven track record of building a successful business," said Irwin D. Simon, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hain Celestial. "We view this as a strategic acquisition for both companies, combining Hain Celestial's impressive group of brands and management team with World Gourmet's history of developing and marketing innovative products, particularly in the club store channel. We look forward to building a strong club business for many of our Hain Celestial brands as we plan to present a full portfolio of products to the club store channel alongside Sensible Portions."

"As co-founders of the Sensible Portions brand and World Gourmet Marketing L.L.C., Jerry Bello and I are very excited about joining the management team of Hain Celestial," said Jason Cohen. "We see a tremendous opportunity to leverage our knowledge and experience within the club store channel to create incremental sales for Hain Celestial's brands."

World Gourmet Co-Founder Jason Cohen will serve as President of Hain Celestial's Club Division, reporting to John Carroll, Chief Executive Officer of Hain Celestial United States. In this capacity, Mr. Cohen will be responsible for sales of all Hain Celestial brands into the club channel. World Gourmet Co-Founder Jerry Bello will serve as Vice President, Snacks and Corporate Innovation, reporting to Mr. Cohen. In this capacity Mr. Bello will lead the development and innovation of snack foods with dynamic new concepts for various Hain Celestial brands from the Sensible Portions Lancaster, Pennsylvania facility.

Terms of the acquisition, which closed, were not disclosed.