Hormel Foods Corporation has closed off its acquisition of Columbus Manufacturing, Inc., an authentic, premium deli meat and salami company, from Chicago-based Arbor Investments.

The addition of the Columbus brand further strengthens Hormel Foods' position as a total deli solutions provider while enhancing its other strong deli brands such as Hormel, Jennie-O, Applegate, and Di Lusso, says the US company.

The purchase price is approximately US$850 million and the closing of the deal quickly follows Hormel Foods initial announcement earlier this month.

Total annual sales are approximately US$300 million with an expected growth rate in excess of 5 percent. Hormel Foods says it expects this acquisition to be modestly accretive to earnings per share in fiscal 2018.

"The acquisition of Columbus is the catalyst for uniting all our deli businesses into one group," said Jim Snee, chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer. "We received regulatory approval faster than anticipated and are excited to start building a stronger, more united deli organization."

Increasing earnings per share
Subsequent to the closing of the acquisition, Hormel Foods is increasing its fiscal 2018 net sales guidance to US$9.7 – US$10.1 billion and increasing its earnings per share guidance to US$1.62 - US$1.72 per share.

The closing of the acquisition also follows Hormel Foods Corporation recently consolidating its food segments. The company’s corporation’s Specialty Foods segment has been merged into its Grocery Products segment. The primary focus of the segment is on delivering a strong branded portfolio of leading products to the evolving retail environment of food, drug, mass, club and E-commerce. Read more here.