BEIJING, Feb.24 (Xinhua) -- Haoxiangni Health Food Co.,Ltd. (002582.SZ) announced late Sunday that it had reached agreement with PepsiCo Inc to sell Be & Cheery to the latter for 705 million U.S. dollars.
The transaction is still up to approvals by shareholders and relevant regulatory authorities, the company said.
As the world's leading beverage and snack food company, PepsiCo’s strong retail operations and innovation capabilities are expected to help drive Be & Cheery’s further growth, said Haoxiangni Health Food chairman Shi Jubin, noting that the company plans to focus on its “Jujube Plus” strategy, exploring local specialty agricultural products, extending jujube-related industrial chain, enhancing value chain, building supply chain as well as making acquisitions for a sustainable, steady and healthy development.
The rich product categories, light-asset and e-commerce-focused model of Be & Cheery highly complement PepsiCo’s existing businesses in China, said Ke Ruinan, CEO with PepsiCo Greater China Region, noting that the acquisition is expected to expand PepsiCo’s on-line market and diversify the company’s product portfolio.
Be & Cheery and PepsiCo both dedicate to improving customer experience and digitalization capability and the company expects faster growth joining hands with PepsiCo, said Qiu Haoqun, chairman with Be & Cheery.
PepsiCo's beverage segment is rather mature and close to ceiling but still gets potential in food sector, thus the strong brand as well as on-line market of Be & Cheery could help explore China’s on-line snack market to further grow its food business, according to industry analysts.
It is noted that the Zhejiang-based snack brand Be & Cheery has its sales mainly based on on-line channels, and was acquired by Haoxiangni Health Food in 2016 for 960 million yuan. (Edited by Niu Huizhe, niuhuizhe@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
