Sep 16, 2020
Grupo Bimbo, the Mexican bakery giant and the world’s largest maker of bread is in talks with private equity firm Everstone Capital to acquire a majority stake in its packaged foods platform Everfoods to further strengthen its foothold in the $8bn bakery market of India.
Initially, Bimbo’ entry into India was with the acquisition of a controlling stockholding in bakery brand ‘Harvest Gold’ in 2017.
According to the reliable sources, the party is reportedly in primary talks with Everstone to buy a majority share of Everfoods.
Acquired from Hindustan Unilever in 2015 along with the bread and bakery business, Everfoods is the maker of Modern Bread with other brands like Cookie Man.
The acquisition will give Bimbo a far bigger slice of the $8bn Indian bakery market, as Modern Foods was once considered a ‘cult brand’ and a famous ‘the pioneer of branded bread category’ in India with a 40% market share.
Modern Bread still remains a popular option among local consumers, selling in more than 80,000 outlets across the country with sales revenue of Rs. 400 crore ($5.43m).
In 2018, Everfoods acquired Chennai-based Australian Foods India that makes fresh baked cookies under the Cookie Man brand.
Headquartered in Singapore, Everstone Company founded in 2006 by former Goldman Sachs bankers Sameer Sain and Atul Kapur, currently manage $4bn of assets under management. The Company also owns F&B Asia Venture, a panAsian food services group and operator, Burger King (India and Indonesia) and Domino’s (Indonesia), among others enterprises.