Weston completes $375M sale of ambient bakery business

TORONTO — George Weston Limited says the previously announced $370-million sale of its Weston Foods ambient bakery business to Hearthside Food Solutions, LLC has closed.

Weston announced in November it would sell its ambient business, which provides retail and food service customers in Canada and the U.S. with cookies, crackers, cones and wafers.

The buyer, Hearthside Food Solutions, is based in Illinois and is a contract manufacturer and producer of baked foods, snacks, and nutrition bars.

In October, Weston reached a deal to sell its fresh and frozen bakery businesses to affiliated entities of FGF Brands Inc. for aggregate cash consideration of $1.2 billion.

Together with the sale of the fresh and frozen business, the sale of the ambient business represents the disposition of George Weston’s entire bakery business, for an aggregate value of $1.57 billion.

The company has said it will focus on its retail and real estate businesses instead.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 29, 2021.

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The Canadian Press