Friday, August 12, 2011

Smart Balance Aquires Glutino - Don't Mess With The Pretzels Please


Click here for a recent write-up from Forbes about the acquisition of Glutino Foods - maker of a wide variety of Gluten Free products - by Smart Balance.  My favorite Glutino product would have to be their GF pretzels - yum yum.  Hey Smart Balance - leave 'em alone please.

I'll let you read the entire article, but here are some interesting points I'd like to highlight...
  1. Gluten Free market identified as a $2.5 Billion industry.  Projections more than double that to exceed $5 Billion by 2015!
  2. Glutino's Gluten Free product sales have steadily grown 30% per year.
  3. Three million Americans are estimated to have Celiac Disease - we know this fact.  The article goes on to say that analysts estimate another 40 million to suffer from non-Celiac Gluten Intolerance.  Wow.  Smart Balance, a company in the low-growth spreads business, apparently sees those 43 million American's as dollar signs.  Cha-ching.  Wall Street analysts now rate the stock (SMBL) a buy and predict a the price to double over the next 12 months.  Better hit e-Trade quick.
  4. Glutino has 2011 fiscal year earnings (ending March 31, 2011) of $54 million.  That's almost 8 million bags of those $6.99 pretzels I spoke about earlier.
What are your thoughts?  Are more of these small Gluten Free companies getting ready to be "consumed" by other food industry giants?  

Click here for products currently offered by Smart Balance (all of which are Gluten Free).  You'll find their buttery spread and peanut butter at my house.

Glutino products can be found here.

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