May 6, 2008

A Bittersweet Deal for Wrigley

Selling the family business wasn't William Wrigley Jr.'s plan, but the Mars offer was too good to refuse

That's what Business Week reported this week. Here are some key nuggets from the article:

Wrigley had little choice but to sell. The industry is just too competitive, and the Mars/Wrigley combo would give them 14.5% market share and a distribution network in 180 countries. Cadbury, the bane of Wrigley's existence, would now be #2 with only a 10% share.
The Mars offer represented a 28% premium over Wrigley's price
Things might have been different if Hershey's had accepted Wrigley's offer to sell back in 2002.
Under William Wrigley Jr.'s watch, sales climbed to more than $5 billion from $2 billion in 1999--driven by snapping up competitors, stoking product development, and expanding globally.
At the press conference, Wrigley said, "It's a challenge because you always think of the generation before you," he said. "But you have to separate yourself from that to make the right decisions."

Photo Illustration by Sean McCabe (Jerry Lai/AP Photo, Bloomberg, PA/Empics, PhotoLibrary)