Paris-based essential daily and plant-based food & beverage maker Danone SA announced June 17 that it will sell its Vega brand — a plant-based nutritional products brand in the US and Canada — to private equity firm WM Partners.
Danone said the divestment is part of the company's "continuous capital allocation optimization" and the strategic review of the company's portfolio of brands, SKUs and assets that it originally announced this past October.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and a closing timeline depends on customary conditions.
The pending sale follows a disappointing 2020 for Danone, which gained the Vega brand through its 2016 acquisition of WhiteWave Foods for $550 million. At the time, Vega's annual revenue was approximately $100 million. This past March, Danone forced out then chairman and CEO Emmanuel Faber as prominent investors publicly pressed the company for action. In Mid-May, Danone announced it had tapped Barry Callebaut CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique to the same role. He will take over Danone leadership on Sept. 15.
