Unilever drops Slim-Fast

Unilever has sold its Slim-Fast brand to Kainos Capital. The supplier of food, home and personal care products will retain a minority stake in the business. Terms of the transaction, which was completed late this week, were not disclosed.



The transaction includes the Slim-Fast trademark and the global Slim-Fast business portfolio. Slim-Fast is sold throughout North America and in the United Kingdom and Ireland.



“The Slim-Fast sale is the last step in the portfolio reshaping that we had planned for North America. This transaction, along with previously announced divestitures, will give us the focus to drive growth behind our core portfolio,” said Kees Kruythoff, president of Unilever North America.



Unilever’s portfolio includes Knorr, Persil / Omo, Dove, Sunsilk, Hellmann’s, Surf, Lipton, Rexona / Sure, Wall’s ice cream, Lux, Flora / Becel, Rama / Blue Band, Magnum and Axe / Lynx.



Kainos Capital is a middle market private equity firm with an exclusive focus on the food and consumer sector. The Kainos team has invested more than $2 billion of equity in more than 40 transactions with a total transaction value in excess of $7 billion. The firm’s strategy is to build a diversified portfolio of growing and strategically relevant food and consumer businesses that trade buyers would like to acquire.