Vevey, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The ongoing guessing game about who will own Cadbury is expected to end Wednesday 6 January when Kraft unveils shareholder response to its hostile takeover bid for Cadbury, but Nestlé won’t be one of the owners. The Swiss-based Nestlé says it is not bidding on Cadbury, ending speculation that it would fight Kraft for the UK-based Cadbury sweets company. Nestlé has instead offered to buy Kraft’s pizza division, the leader in the US and Canada in the frozen pizza market.

Nestlé’s $3.7 billion offer for the pizza business is allowing Kraft to increase its cash offer for Cadbury.

The pizza deal covers a number of brands, including DiGiorno, Tombstone, California Pizza Kitchen, Jack’s and Delissio.

Paul Bulcke, CEO of Nestlé, said in a press release, Tuesday 5 January, “This frozen pizza business greatly enhances Nestlé’s frozen food activities in North America, bringing together a selection of great US and Canadian brands, industry-leading R&D and excellent route-to-market capabilities, which complement our existing ice cream direct-store-delivery. With total sales of around CHF3 billion, Nestlé will become the world leader in the attractive, fast-growing frozen pizza category.”

The US leads the world in frozen pizza sales, worth about $37 billion, according to Nestlé, and Kraft sales in 2009 are expected to be $2.1b. Nestlé calls the new frozen pizza business a “natural fit”, noting that “the acquisition brings leadership in the frozen pizza category, where Nestlé only had a minor presence until now, and builds on Nestlé’s existing pizza know-how and operations in Europe.”

Links to other sites: Nestle press release on Kraft pizza, Reuters, Times UK

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