ITC to acquire Yoga Bar to strengthen presence in nutrition health foods space

ITC Ltd on Tuesday said it has signed an agreement to acquire direct-to-consumer (D2C) start-up Sproutlife Foods Pvt Ltd with a view to strengthen its presence in the fast-growing nutrition health foods space.

ITC will buyout the company in tranches over a period of 3-4 years, the company said in an exchange filing. It will buy out 47.5% stake in Sproutlife Foods in tranches by March 2025.

“The balance stake will be acquired, basis pre-defined valuation criteria, subject to other conditions agreed to in the binding documents,” ITC said.

The company will initially invest Rs 175 crore by subscribing to shares representing 39.4% stake in the start-up by February 15. Further, it will infuse Rs 80 crore by March 31, 2025.

The balance stake will be acquired by ITC based on the pre-defined valuation criteria within 3 months of Sproutlife providing its financial results for the year ending March 2026. Sproutlife Foods’ turnover increased to Rs 68 crore in 2021-22 (April-March) from Rs 32 crore in 2019-20.

Sproutlife manufactures and sells food products under the trademark ‘Yoga Bar’.

Yoga Bar has a product portfolio, including nutrition bars, muesli, oats and cereals. It currently has a high salience of online sales, with growing presence in offline stores.

The acquisition will enable ITC to augment its future-ready portfolio and enhance market presence in the 'Good for You' space, which currently includes Aashirvaad multi-grain atta, Aashirvaad Nature's Super Foods, Farmlite range of biscuits, Sunfeast Protein Shake, B Natural Nutrilite ABC Beverage, among others.

“Yoga Bar is expected to be rapidly scaled up, leveraging ITC's enterprise strengths in areas such as sales and distribution, sourcing, product development, and digital,” ITC said in a release.

This investment is in line with the 'ITC Next' strategy articulated by Chairman Sanjiv Puri that focuses also on building a future-ready portfolio of products.

"We look forward to scaling the Yoga Bar brand offering superior and healthy consumer choices,” Hemant Malik, divisional chief executive, foods division at ITC, was quoted as saying.

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