Swiss food giant Nestle on Tuesday announced the sale of its regional spring water brands, plus two of its other North American efforts, to One Rock Capital Partners and Metropoulos & Co for US$4.3 billion.
The sale includes five of the giant’s spring water brands, including Poland Spring, three of its mountain water brands, its purified water business and its United States and Canada water delivery service, ReadyRefresh, according to a statement.
“This sale enables us to create a more focused business around our international premium brands, local natural mineral waters and high-quality healthy hydration products,” Nestle CEO Mark Schneider said in the statement.
The eight brands totalled nearly 3.4 billion Swiss francs (more than 3 billion euros, or $3.8 billion) in sales in 2019.
The maker of such famous chocolate bars as KitKat and Butterfinger will hang onto its Perrier, San Pellegrino and Acqua Panna water brands.
After a large-scale review of its operations, Nestle in December rolled out a series of measures aimed at an effort to halve its emissions by 2030 and to get to net zero emissions by 2050.
