“Fresh” can be a relative term to people as they describe what it means to them. For Bolthouse Farms, Bakersfield, Calif., and Camden, N.J.-based Campbell Soup Co., the concept of “packaged fresh” became linked when Campbell Soup Co. acquired Bolthouse for approximately $1.55 billion earlier this year.
“We feel great. As a private-equity-backed company, we always knew that at some point we would sell the company to a new owner, and our hope was whoever the new owner was really bought into our vision for the company and could provide the right kind of platform for us to accelerate what we’re doing, and that’s exactly what we found with Campbell’s; we’ve got a great owner,” says Jeff Dunn, president and chief executive officer of Bolthouse. “They totally believe in what we’re doing and … they’ve given us the support to not only keep doing it, but to accelerate.”