Bryan Matthews

Gallo buys Constellation brands.  E. & J. Gallo Winery buys 34 wine and spirit brands from Constellation for $1.7 billion. Included in the sale are wine labels Clos du Bois, Black Box, Ravenswood, Mark West, Wild Horse, Estancia , Franciscan, Toasted Head, Hogue Cellars, Blackstone, Vendange , Rex Goliath, Diseno , Hidden Crush, Taylor Country Cellars, Blufeld , Manischewitz, Wild Irish Rose, Arbor Mist, Milestone, La Terre , Taylor Dessert, Paul Masson Dessert, Capri, Cribari Dessert, Primal Roots, Taylor NY Table, Paul Masson Table, Simply Naked, Cribari Table, and V.NO. The deal adds six winemaking facilities to Gallo’s vertical integration. They are Mission Bell in Madera , Turner Road Vintners in Lodi, Clos du Bois in Geyserville , Wild Horse in Templeton, Hogue Cellars in Washington, and Canandaigua in New York. Gallo finished a beautiful renovation of the Louis M. Martini winery in Saint Helena in late March.  Michael McGrew of Const...

Ferrero buys Keebler . Nutella maker Ferrero buys Keebler cookies from Kellogg for $1.3 billion.      Brand names moving to the Italian confectioner are Keebler® , Famous Amos®, Mother’ s® , Murray® sugar-free, Little Brownie Bakers® , the supplier of cookies to the Girl Scouts, Stretch Island®, Fruity Snacks, Keebler ’ s® ice cream cones, and Keebler ’ s® pie crusts.      As part of the deal, Ferrero buys six Kellogg-owned US food manufacturing facilities in Allyn, Washington, Augusta, Georgia, Florence and Louisville, Kentucky, two plants in Chicago, Illinois, and a leased facility in Baltimore, Maryland. Giovanni Ferrero of Ferrero Group said: ‘Kellogg Company’s cookie, fruit snack, ice cream cone, and pie crust businesses are a strategic fit for Ferrero as we continue to increase our footprint and product offerings in the North American market. With this transaction, I look forward to bringi...

Kirkbi buys Enerparc . Kirkbi buys a majority stake in solar developer Enerparc Inc. Enerparc ’s management team keeps minority ownership. Enerparc develops, engineers, builds and operates distributed utility-scale photovoltaic projects. They support the transition of commercial energy supply to renewable forms of power by connecting large-scale solar photo voltaic systems to the grid. This deal is an evolution in Kirkbi’s renewable venture strategy. Kirkbi is already a recognized investor in offshore wind farms. The Lego Group is already 100 percent renewable-powered and has solar power on its own property. Lego likes to tell the story, a good one: The original wooden Lego bricks were fine until the firm bought this newfangled plastic injection molding machine in the 1940s. Thomas Lau Schleicher of Kirkbi said: ‘The significant majority stake in Enerparc gives Kirkbi a unique opportunity to take ownership in a company that has established ...