The following video segment is part of a full interview in which The Motley Fool’s Brendan Byrnes sits down with Irwin Simon, the founder and CEO of The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAIN), to take a closer look at the better-for-you food revolution. In this segment, they discuss how the continual influx of new products, acquisitions, and marketing strategies could further the current success of this natural-foods company.
A transcript follows the video.
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Brendan Byrnes: Now, The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAIN) has been recommended by our Stock Advisor service, along with Supernova, so we have a lot of investors, I think, that are invested in The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAIN). What are some things that they need to watch in 2013? Maybe some milestones or big events coming up?
Irwin Simon: So I think, coming back to 2013, No. 1 is just our growth and our distribution and our products. We introduced a lot of new products. We introduce worldwide over $80 million a year in new products. We have a big natural-foods show in Anaheim in March, when there are just a lot of new products in, so that’s No. 1.
No. 2 is we’ve done some great acquisitions in the U.K. We’re just overlapping a year today of owning [Daniels Group] and great growth on New Covent Garden soups, Johnson’s Juice, Farmhouse Fare. At the end of October, we closed on the Premier Foods deal and are really getting a lot of new products, new distribution over there and getting some scale in the U.K.
Also in the U.K., I was there last week. We just launched Greek Gods Yogurt. In the U.K. we’ll launch, the end of June, we’ll launch a whole line of gluten-free products in the U.K. We’re going to take over and really focus on our non-dairy business in the U.K. We’re in the midst of opening up a new non-dairy facility outside Cologne, Germany, that will give us capacity within the U.K., so within the U.K. and throughout Europe.
Our European business is really growing. Danival, which we bought last year, expanding that throughout Europe. Actually we’re bringing Danival into the U.S. We’re going to introduce Sensible Portions, which is our snack business in the U.K. and Europe, and really expand upon that. Our European group will expand upon our soup business, our New Convent Garden, and some of the Premier. So that’s what we’re looking forward to in the U.K.
