Nestlé To Sell Gerber Life To Western & Southern
Nestlé has announced that it agreed to sell White Plains, New York-based Gerber Life to Western & Southern for $1.55B. The purchase includes a long-term license to use Gerber Life intellectual property in connection with financial services. When completed, the acquisition will increase Western & Southern’s assets owned and under management to approximately $77.1 billion.
Founded in 1967 as a financially separate affiliate of the Gerber Products Company, “the baby food people,” Gerber Life specializes in providing simplified life insurance products to underserved middle-income families as well as medical stop-loss insurance to small and medium-sized businesses. Nestlé, the largest food and beverage company in the world, acquired Gerber Products and Gerber Life in 2007. Gerber Life’s $52B of life insurance in force and 3.6M individual life policies will expand Western & Southern’s policyholder base and enhance its product profile by increasing its ratio of life insurance business to annuity business. Last, more than 500 associates make up Gerber Life’s workforce, distributed between the company’s headquarters in White Plains and an operations center in Fremont, Michigan. Current plans call for all to remain in place.
“We are delighted to have found an outstanding new home for Gerber Life at Western & Southern, where it will flourish as part of a larger financial services organization. This move is part of the ongoing evolution of our portfolio. It will allow us to invest further in our core food and beverage business and in consumer healthcare.” – Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider.
“We are delighted to welcome Gerber Life to our family . This iconic and trusted consumer brand is a compelling fit for Western & Southern, which has always been a human institution serving human needs with tailored financial solutions that are easy for our clients to understand. Our two companies share a common mission of providing financial strength and security to the ones we love.” – Chairman, President and CEO of Western & Southern, John F. Barrett.
Bottom Line: the deal brings a leading D2C life insurer brand to Western & Southern’s diversified family of financial services businesses.
Recall insurance-related M&A here.
