Nestlé Buying Gerber For $5.5 Billion
 

Nestlé Buying Gerber For $5.5 Billion
By Amy Radishofski, Staff Reporter, Manufacturing.net
Manufacturing.Net - April 12, 2007

Nestlé announced Thursday that it will acquire baby food brand Gerber from Novartis for $5.5 billion, making Nestlé the largest single baby food market.

For 2007, Gerber had net proceeds of sales of approximately $1.95 billion.

In addition to being a highly-recognizable brand in the U.S., it also holds a strong market position in Mexico, Poland and Central America.

“The acquisition of Gerber is the perfect complementary fit,” said Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé. “It not only gives Nestlé the leadership position in baby food, but it also constitutes a decisive step to establish Nestlé Nutrition as the undisputed global leader in the nutrition field, with annual sales of around $8.19 billion, covering all important sectors: infant formula, baby food, medical nutrition, weight management and performance nutrition. This is a major step in the transformational journey of Nestlé toward a Nutrition, Health and Wellness Company.”

The transaction is expected to be completed during the second half of 2007.

I am of the opinion that most big mergers in the past 20 years (if not longer) have been bad ideas. Far too many companies have grown/merged so that they are now experiencing diseconomies of scale.

Buy a blender. Put in left-overs and stuff and leave out the things that give babies gas. Grind. Repeat a few times a day till the tooths come in. Who needs Gerber anyway?

Hear that, heck, the kid should be drinking titjuice till the teeth are in anyway. When they start popping in, cut up bits of food real small and let them pick it up with their fingers.

Milk, it does a body good.

And there are Japonese Adults now looking for wet nurses, as a way to get healthier and lose weight!

It sounds like soon, worldwide, we will be able to buy Nestle/Gerber baby food or none at all. Every corporation dreams of this possibility.

Supe, believe it or not, I agree with you here. The government should act to prevent monopolies and ensure that companies do not forge financial reports, but no more.

I'm not going to capitalize on that statement, Chris. I'm just going to verify that we're in agreement. On this issue, and I think some others, it may be (shouold be, I think) a matter of where you draw the line. We know that sometimes corporations need to be reined in. And sometimes, unfortunate humans need assistance. We both want those systems to be effective and we want people to have freedom and opportunity. I'd be pleased if we tried your ideas and they worked beautifully.

Marx said there would be one corporation left in every industry, then the state would take over..

Good thing for Bill Gates and new things.

Those crazy Japonese!

I remember during a class my Wife and I took when she was pregnant with Our Son, the instructor told us that 50% of all women can induce lactation without being pregnant or giving birth! There is some sort of stimulation technique that is done - looked like foreplay to us.