U.S. food giant Mondelez to buy Toronto-based company that makes two-bite brownies

Food conglomerate Mondelez International is buying a controlling interest in a Toronto-based company famous for its two-bite brownies for a reported $1.2 billion.

In a news release Tuesday, Mondelez said it is buying Toronto-based Give & Go Prepared Foods Corp. from its current owners, a Boston-based private equity group called Thomas H. Lee Partners.

Give & Go makes a variety of prepackaged baked goods and confectioneries under such brand names as Kimberley’s Bakeshoppe, Create a Treat, Mason St. Bakehouse and The Worthy Crumb Pastry Co. But their best known product is their line of so-called two-bite brownies available in various Canadian grocery stores.

The company had $500 million worth of revenue last year. The companies didn’t disclose a price tag for the purchase, but according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar for the deal, it was for $1.2 billion US.

Give & Go was founded in 1989 and grew steadily until it was bought by the pension fund for Ontario municipal workers, OMERS, in 2007. OMERS then sold the business to Thomas H. Lee in 2016 for an undisclosed sum.

Now the business is being sold to food giant Mondelez, which owns such brands as Philadelphia cream cheese, Chips Ahoy and Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers, Cadbury chocolates and many more.

Give & Go has seven production facilities in and around Toronto, employing roughly 1,500 people, and there are no plans to alter the workforce or any production facilities. “All Give & Go products will continue to be made at their current manufacturing locations,” the company said in a release.

Give & Go’s CEO Joel Flatt will stay with the company and continue to own a minority stake in the business. “We are now very excited to be joining the Mondelez International family and this amazing portfolio of iconic snack brands,” Flatt said.

The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of this year.

CBC