The U.S. company behind the Crisco brand of cooking oils and shortenings is selling that product line to the maker of Cream of Wheat cereal and Green Giant vegetables.

New Jersey-based B+G Foods announced Monday it will buy the Crisco product lines from Ohio-based J.M. Smucker for about US$550 million (C$725.1 million).

The sale includes the soybean- and palm-oil-based Crisco shortening product lines, as well as Crisco canola-based and soybean-based cooking oils, plus the brand’s Cincinnati manufacturing plant and warehouse, which employ about 160 people.

The deal also includes Smucker’s oils and shortening business outside the U.S., which is “primarily in Canada,” the company said.

The Crisco business booked net sales of about US$270 million for Smucker in its fiscal year ended April 30. The company expects to close the deal in its third quarter of fiscal 2021.

Smucker has owned the Crisco brand since 2001, when it bought that product line and Jif peanut butter from Procter + Gamble.

“Crisco is an iconic brand that is beloved by consumers, and the business has been a solid contributor to our financial performance,” Smucker CEO Mark Smucker said Monday in a release.

“However, our strategic priorities include an increased focus and allocation of resources toward pet food and pet snacks, coffee, and snacking to maintain momentum in these categories.”

B+G CEO Kenneth Romanzi said the company is getting “the number one brand of shortening, the number one brand of vegetable oil and… a leadership position in other cooking oils and cooking sprays.”

Crisco, he said, “has a strong heritage, as the original all-vegetable shortening that transformed the way people bake and cook over 100 years ago.”

B+G said it projects that in 2021, the Crisco business will “continue to benefit from increased demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic” and again generate annual net sales of about US$270 million. — Glacier FarmMedia Network