Milling & Baking News Corporate Profiles - 2019 - 64

COMPANY OVERVIEW

Campbell Soup Co.
Strategy entails divesting non-core businesses, investing in soup
ampbell Soup Co.'s situation in August
2019 was more stable than in August
2018, when shareholder Third Point,
L.L.C. was calling for a sale of the company
and soup sales were slumping.
Campbell Soup Co., Camden, N.J., and Third
Point in November 2018 reached an agreement
in which Campbell Soup increased the size of
its board of directors to 14 from 12 with two
members coming from Third Point.
Campbell Soup since August 2018 also has
progressed on goals of selling non-core businesses and investing in soup. The company
expects aggregate net proceeds of $3 billion
from the divestments of the Campbell International and Campbell Fresh divisions. Sales in
U.S. Soup, meanwhile, grew 3% in the fourth
quarter of fiscal-year 2019 ended July 28.
Divestments came at a steady pace.
Campbell Soup in February agreed to sell its
Everett, Wash., refrigerated soup plant to an
affiliate of the Joshua Green Corp., a Seattlebased private investment company. The same
month Campbell Soup sold Garden Fresh Gourmet, part of the Campbell Fresh division, to an
affiliate of Fountain of Health USA.
Campbell Soup in June closed the sale of
Bolthouse Farms to an affiliate of Butterfly

Equity, a private equity firm, for $510 million.
The transaction completed the divestiture of
Campbell Fresh.
Then in August, Campbell Soup said it had
agreed to sell Arnott's and certain Campbell's
International operations to KKR, a global investment firm, for $2.2 billion. In September,
Campbell completed the sale of Kelsen Group
to a Ferrero-affiliated company for $300 million. Based in Denmark, Kelsen produces baked
snacks under brands such as Kjeldsens and
Royal Dansk. Campbell Soup thus will sell its
entire International division for an aggregate
price of $2.5 billion.
"We have clearly stabilized the company
from where we were a year ago and delivered
improved performance over the course of the
year," said Mark A. Clouse, president and chief
executive officer, in an Aug. 30 earnings call.
"By no means are we declaring victory. We
have much to do to continue to strengthen our

business, improve our marketing and innovation, and demonstrate executional excellent
consistently. However, the actions we have
taken have removed a great deal of unpredictability around our business and created a solid
foundation to build upon going forward."
Mr. Clouse, previously c.e.o. of Pinnacle
Foods, Inc., in January took over as Campbell Soup Co.'s president and c.e.o. for Keith
McLoughlin. During Mr. Clouse's two-and-ahalf-year tenure as c.e.o. of Pinnacle Foods,
Pinnacle delivered double-digit adjusted e.p.s.
growth and integrated the Boulder Brands acquisition.
"Over the last several months, the Campbell board conducted a thorough search
process, and we are confident that Mark is
the right person to continue our turnaround
plan and lead Campbell to future growth,"
said Les Vinney, chairman of the board for
Campbell Soup.
Besides naming Mr. Clouse as c.e.o., another executive move came in August when
Mick Beekhuizen, previously executive vicepresident and c.e.o. of Chobani, was named
Campbell Soup's senior vice-president and
chief financial officer, replacing Anthony
DiSilvestro. CP

Chief executive officer -
Mark A. Clouse

Campbell Soup Co.
net earnings

Campbell Soup Co.
net sales

(fiscal years ended in July)

Campbell Soup share price

per share
$50

(fiscal years ended in July)

$887

2017

64 \ November 2019

$261

2018

$211

2019

in millions

$45
$40

$7,890

$6,615

$8,107
$35

2017

2018

2019

$30
Oct.
2018

Dec.

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Milling & Baking News Corporate Profiles - 2019

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