Smucker and Procter & Gamble
It headline was a little off on the New York Times Dealbook article that proclaimed "Smucker Shines to Folgers' Crystals," (5/4/08). True the US-based jams and peanut butter company made its largest acquisition ever, by buying the Folgers coffee division from Proctor & Gamble, in a deal priced at $3.3 billion. Folgers is the #1 instant coffee brand in the US.
For JM Smucker, coffee seems like an extension of its shelf-stable product line. For Smucker, it is the seventh acquisition in the last few years. The company has acquired such brands as Knotts Berry Farm jams, Hungry Jack pancakes, Pillsbuty flour,, and PET evaporated milk. In fact, P & G had sold off brands like Jif peanut butter and Crisco shortening to Smucker previously, and the company has been gradually withdrawing from the slower-growing food industry into personal and household care..
But at the same time, P & G announced that after Smucker pays out a one-time dividend, I, Procter & Gamble shareholders would control 53.5 percent of Smucker, In other words, P & G is spinning off the coffee division but its current shareholders will have a majority stock position. In some sense, at least, Smucker is becoming a division of Folgers, while retaining the euphonious Smucker name.
The pick-ups and discards go on.
9:52:47 PM 
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