SunOpta has acquired Hain Celestial Group’s North America non-dairy beverages brands for a total consideration of $33m.

The deal involves the purchase of two plant-based beverage brands namely Dream and WestSoy.

Dream brand offers shelf-stable, plant-based milk that is distributed across organic and traditional grocery channels in the country.

Currently, SunOpta produces nearly 50% of the Dream product portfolio.

With the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) organic and the American Heart Association certification, WestSoy’s shelf-stable soy beverages are sold by many major retailers. The entire product portfolio is currently produced by SunOpta.

Hain Celestial president and CEO Mark L Schiller said: “With today’s announcement and the strategic sale of our North America non-dairy beverages business to SunOpta, we provide the market with the latest example of what has been an ongoing transformation of our brand portfolio.

“We considered this business to be non-core within our North American business and as such, this divestiture fully aligns with both our portfolio simplification process and prioritisation efforts of our Get Bigger brands.

“Additionally, this transaction improves our growth profile without impacting the profit margin for the remaining Hain Celestial business, providing us with increased confidence in our ability to continue to enhance shareholder returns over the long-term.”

The newly acquired brands will be part of SunOpta’s plant-based foods and beverages segment.

SunOpta CEO Joe Ennen said: “This transaction is very consistent with our previously stated objective of pursuing strong organic and inorganic growth in our plant-based business. As previously communicated, our interest in brands is to allow the acceleration of innovation by giving us platforms to pursue emerging or niche opportunities.

“These two brands are perfect examples of niche brands that complement, but do not directly compete with, our vitally important co-manufactured partners. Since SunOpta has been manufacturing these brands for years, when this opportunity presented itself it was an obvious fit for us to own these brands.

“These leading brands will receive the appropriate attention within SunOpta, along with an objective of developing growth opportunities for each of the Dream and WestSoy branded products.”