Family Business: Nature’s Path Acquires Baby Food Brand
Ingraining itself further into CPG foods, Nature’s Path Organic Foods announced the planned acquisition of Love Child Organics last Friday, strengthening the family-owned cereal, snack and flour company’s position in the growing baby and kid foods category.
British Columbia-based Nature’s Path will add Love Child’s product list of toddler fruit puree pouches, crackers, cookies and snack bars along with its existing manufacturing relationships to its portfolio by end of June. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“The acquisition of Love Child Organics further strengthens our mission to leave the Earth better than we found it and to make organic food more accessible to everyone, regardless of age,” a representative for Nature’s Path told NOSH Tuesday. “With this new offering we expect the ability to increase our customers lifetime value and to further pursue our mission to transform the health of the planet through organic food.”
Love Child is currently sold only in Canada, but Nature’s Path intends to bring the brand to the U.S. eventually. The company declined to give details on its U.S.-based launch strategy but Nature’s Path institutional knowledge operating in over 50 countries makes it well-positioned to bring Love Child across the border.
Love Child Organics has been on the sales block since April when its parent company Green Space Brands announced it would be part of the company’s restructuring proceedings as it faced “challenging financial circumstances and pending debt maturities.” In a press release, publicly-traded Green Space named its senior lender, Pivot Financial I Limited Partnership, as the “stalking horse bidder” in a Court-approved sale and investment solicitation process for Love Child.
The April news comes after president and CEO Shawn Warren announced in late February’s Q3 earnings call “robust topline progress on the Love Child Organics business with broad retailer support and new distribution wins.”
During the February call, the company announced it had expanded its assortment and added new products to the Love Child brand that had positively impacted gross revenue.
Nature’s Path was established in 1985 by husband-and-wife team Arran and Ratana Stephens. At the time, it was a pioneer in the relatively small organic cereal business and is still owned and operated by the Stephens family today, self-manufacturing its cereals and CPG products. The company also purchased and co-operates organic farms in Saskatchewan and Montana.
The company has made a number of acquisitions over the years, purchasing Country Choice Organic in 2015 in turn adding oats, grits, hot cereal and cookies to its portfolio. Nature’s Path expanded into salty snacks in 2012, acquiring the Que Pasa brand and, most recently, took a majority stake in its former ingredient supplier Anita’s Organic Mill in October 2021 to strengthen its manufacturing arm.
“We will now have the ability to serve the full consumer lifecycle from babies/toddlers with Love Child Organics through childhood with our EnviroKidz brand and into adolescents with Nature’s Path, Que Pasa and finally into adulthood with our full range of products including our Love Crunch products,” the company representative said.
Along with acquisitions, Nature’s Path has been innovating in the kids food category, launching a waffles line under the EnviroKidz banner in 2021 as well as leaning into trends with keto-friendly granolas and expanding its Love Crunch brand.
Adding Love Child to the mix brings the lucrative yet crowded market for fruit puree pouches and better-for-you kids crackers to Nature’s Path. According to data provided by the company, the baby food market is valued at $8.5 billion in the U.S.
