J&J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ-JJSF), a food manufacturing company of 2,600 employees headquartered in Pennsauken, NJ, announced April 2nd the $4.6 million acquisition of WHOLE FRUIT Sorbet and FRUIT-A-FREEZE Frozen Fruit Bar brands, along with related assets including a manufacturing facility located in Norwalk, CA from a subsidiary of CoolBrands International, Inc., located in Toronto, Canada.
The acquired brands had been experiencing declining sales for several years with sales of approximately $10 million in 2006. The Company said that it expects sales to be less than $2 million in its fiscal year ending September 2007, but is hopeful of rebuilding the brands and business going forward. Gerald B. Shreiber, J & J's president and CEO, commented, "These two premium brands add to our expanding portfolio of frozen novelty product. The manufacturing facility gives us a West Coast plant for manufacturing frozen novelty products that is expandable in the future which would benefit logistics over the long term."
J & J Snack Foods was represented by legal counsel A. Fred Ruttenberg, a securities shareholder at Flaster Greenberg P.C. in Cherry Hill, NJ. The acquisition was J&J's fifth buy in 14 months. CoolBrands International Inc. was represented by Yaakov Eizicovics, an associate to Bernard Gropper, Barrister and Solicitor in Toronto, Ontario.
