ConAgra Foods Inc. announced plans to sell its store-brand food business. The news comes just two years after the company invested $5 billion to purchase private-label food manufacturer Ralcorp, the Associated Press reported.
ConAgra said its future plans will include a more aggressive approach to cost reduction, balanced capital allocation and a concentration on growing its consumer foods and Lamb Weston segment.
“As I have intensely studied the situation in our Private Brands operations over the last few months, it has become clear that the time and energy the company is devoting to the Private Brands turnaround represent a suboptimal use of our resources,” said Sean Connolly, CEO of ConAgra Foods. “To prevent further distraction, we are pursuing the divestiture of our Private Brands operations. Because the outcome of our strategic review for the Private Brands operations will influence our long-term financial outlook, we will wait until this process is complete before sharing long-term financial commitments. We expect to offer operating details of our plans as well as long-term financial expectations at an investor event later this year.”
company’s fiscal 2015 fourth quarter results, sales for the private brands segment declined slightly to $1 billion.
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