Minneapolis-based Flagstone Foods, a major producer of store-brand snack nuts and trail mixes, has acquired Emerald Nuts.
Campbell Soup Co. sold the brand, which had $66 million in sales last year, for an undisclosed amount, the soup company announced Tuesday.
Flagstone has long worked as a behind-the-scenes manufacturer — making and packaging private label products for others. Now, with a well-established brand, the company gains higher visibility in the snack aisle.
"This is a transformative acquisition for the company to really return us to a growth model," Flagstone CEO Harry Overly said. "Because of our scale, there's room for us to improve the quality of the product. That's where our forte is, designing really great, high-quality products."
Flagstone was part of Chicago-based Treehouse Foods until 2019, when the private equity firm Atlas Holdings bought the snacking division and set up its headquarters in Minneapolis. Flagstone named Overly as CEO last year.
Flagstone employs about 800 people and operates three manufacturing plants in North Carolina, Texas and Alabama. It also owns the Goodfields, Hoody's, Nature's Harvest and Nutcracker brands.
About 60 to 80 new jobs will be added as part of the acquisition, mostly in Minnesota and Texas. Overly said the El Paso plant will take on the Emerald production lines.
Emerald was founded in 2004 and acquired by Campbell in 2018. The sale is part of the company's strategy to "focus on driving accelerated growth across our snacks division and power brands," said Chris Foley, president of Campbell Snacks, in a statement.
Minnesota companies now have a considerable stake in the snacking nuts market; Hormel Foods bought Planters in 2021. Hormel and Flagstone both saw the nut brands as needing more attention than their previous corporate parents were giving.
"Campbell had it on cruise control for a number of years and it was still the number four brand in the category," Overly said. "This brand didn't get the tender loving care it needed."
Flagstone will need to contend with a market that is, on the whole, declining. Among the nation's top 12 snack categories, only snack nuts saw a decline in both dollar sales and volumes sold last year, according to market research firm Circana.
Overly said there is plenty of room for growth and innovation in the category from both a branded and private label perspective.
"Our first nine months will be spent getting the business stabilized and transitioned to Flagstone," he said. New products, packaging and other changes could be rolled out in early 2024.
