Landec may divest its vegetable bag and tray business Curation Foods

The US-based Landec Corporation will explore new opportunities, including the divestiture of its vegetable bag and tray business Curation Foods.

Curation Foods business includes Eat Smart and private label brands.

Landec president and CEO Dr Albert Bolles said: “We have been evaluating our commoditised vegetable bag and tray business since my appointment as CEO.

“Our team’s approach to growth and profitability is to focus on leveraging the strength of our higher-margin product and innovation platforms.

“Consistent with my philosophy of ‘getting smaller to get bigger’, we believe that rightsizing the legacy business will result in improved financial performance and enable Curation Foods to set a course for sustainable profitable growth.”

The divestiture of Curation Foods will improve Landec’s operating cost structure, simplify its supply chain and enhance its profitability.

The exploration of strategic alternatives for its business unit forms part of the company’s project SWIFT initiative. This aims to improve the Curation Foods business by simplifying and streamlining the business.

Bolles added: “This step is part of the next phase of our previously announced shareholder value creation program, Project SWIFT, which is designed to turn around Curation Foods and transform it into an agile, competitive company.

“During this transformation, we will remain fully committed to providing our customers, grower partners and consumers with the highest level of service and continuity.”

Landec has appointed investment-banking firm William Blair to identify strategic alternatives for the business and to evaluate bids.

However, the company said that there it has no assurance that this sale process will result in a transaction.