Tate’s Bake Shop to Sell For $500M

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]When Kathleen King started her small bake shop business in Southampton many years ago, she couldn’t have dreamed that one day it would turn into a brand that would be purchased for $500 million. According to the Wall Street Journal, food conglomerate Mondelez International is adding the confectionary company to its portfolio.

A born entrepreneur, King began selling her homemade chocolate chip cookies at her family’s Southampton farm as a child.  In 1980, she opened Kathleen’s Bake Shop. She later launched Tate’s, which grew into the international success it is today. In 2005, Rachel Ray named her chocolate chip cookie the “best cookie in America.”

Mondelez, which was formed in 2012 as a result of the breakup of food giant Kraft Foods, manufactures such supermarket staples as Oreos and Ritz crackers. “Americans’ appetite for fresher food with simpler ingredients has challenged some of the company’s iconic brands in recent years,” according to the WSJ.

Best known for its crispy chocolate chip cookies made with such homespun ingredients as brown sugar and butter rather than high fructose cane sugar and vegetable oil, Tate’s, which has grown to national distribution from that one shop, is a natural fit. The fact that the company’s sales have quadrupled in the last five years couldn’t have hurt the deal.

“With a strong founder story and on-trend products, Tate’s has been one of the fastest growing biscuit brands in the United States over the last 12 months,” a press release stated.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]