Post Sells Recently Acquired Pasta Business, Maintains Granola

In just under two months, Post Holdings has acquired and offloaded 8th Avenue Food and Provisions dry pasta business, which includes the Ronzoni brand.

The St. Louis-based food company reported it would be divesting the pasta segment of 8th Avenue to Richardson Holdings Limited. Post will hold onto the nut butters, fruit and nut products, and granola assets, integrating them into its portfolio.

Post expects the nut butters, fruit, nut and granola will add $45 million to $50 million in adjusted EBITDA to the company’s FY2026 earnings. Richardson will pay $375 million in cash and assume about $80 million in leaseback financial liabilities.

In early June, Post announced its intention to acquire the manufacturer of pasta, granola, nut butter, and fruits and nuts and completed the sale at the beginning of July. The deal was expected to add “synergies” by internalizing Peter Pan peanut butter manufacturing and bringing granola, nuts and fruit into Post’s cereal portfolio.

At the time, Post touted its entrance into the dry pasta category without hinting that it might offload the segment. The company raised its FY2025 adjusted EBITDA forecast by $30 million to the range of $1.46 billion and $1.5 billion.

In tandem with the Richardson deal, Post Holdings announced its board had approved a new $500 million share repurchase authorization, replacing a separate $500 million repurchase agreement that had already bought back $304.8 million in shares.

The share buy-back is in line with comments Post leadership made during its Q3 earnings call on August 8, where president and CEO Robert V. Vitale stated that share repurchasing was a more “attractive” way to build value for the company as opposed to more M&A activity.

“We continue to be open-minded to transactions, small and large, and we just wait for the time to be right,” he said in response to a question about further M&A plans.