Behind Hormel’s Strategy For PLANTERS

Can meat and peanuts go together like meat and potatoes? That’s the $3.3 billion question before Hormel Foods Inc., which acquired the Planters brand from Kraft Heinz in one of the CPG industry’s biggest business deals of 2021.

Planters generates more than $1 billion in sales a year, but faced the perception that it was something of a neglected entity within the big portfolio of Kraft Heinz, which worried that private label competition was limiting its ability to grow. That task is now in the hands of the maker of SPAM^®, Jennie-O turkey and Skippy^® peanut butter.

In this week’s edition of the Marketer’s Brief podcast, Rafik Lawendy, head of marketing for the Planters brand, discusses why Hormel made the deal, and where he sees unique opportunities for Planters^® to bring its “substance” to its new siblings, and expand their presence together in new retail channels. “From a snacking standpoint, nuts are a great food for the future,” he said. “They have all of the consumer and growth trends coming their way.”