Unilever Seeks Buyer for Wish-Bone Salad Dressing

Unilever Seeks Buyer for Wish-Bone Salad Dressing

Unilever  is seeking a buyer for its Wish-Bone salad-dressing business, the latest well-known food brand the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate has put on the block as it shifts its focus toward personal-care products.

Unilever has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to try to find a buyer for the business, which is expected to fetch hundreds of millions of dollars in any sale, the people said. It is unclear which, if any, big food companies or private-equity firms might be interested in the business.

Unilever's personal-care business includes Degree deodorant, Caress soap and Vaseline. As part of the company's reorientation toward that business, Unilever has struck deals including the $3.7 billion acquisition of hair-care firm Alberto Culver Co. in 2010.

A sale of Wish-Bone would follow Unilever's sale of its Skippy peanut-butter business to Hormel Foods earlier this year for $700 million. Last year, it sold its North American frozen meals business to ConAgra Foods  for roughly $265 million.

Mergermarket earlier reported on the possible Wish-Bone sale.

Wish-Bone got its start as an Italian salad-dressing maker in 1945, according to the company's website. In 1957, Lipton, now a Unilever holding, bought the business.

Unilever doesn't break out Wish-Bone's revenues or other financials.

Source: WSJ