Canadian snack-food firm CoolBrands International Inc. said Tuesday it has snapped up Chipwich Inc., the parent company of the popular ice-cream product bearing the same name.
Financial terms of the deal with Piermont, N.Y.-based Chipwich were not released.
"Chipwich is a brand name everyone knows and a product with proven appeal and staying power," CoolBrands president and co-chief executive officer, David Stein, said in a statement.
"CoolBrands expects to significantly expand distribution of the Chipwich brand, especially in supermarkets, extend the brand through line extensions and realize margin enhancements based on acquisition synergies," he added.
CoolBrands is seen by many industry watchers as a home-grown Canadian success story with a head office in the Toronto suburb of Markham, Ont. But the two co-chief executive officers are in Ronkonkoma, N.Y., a tiny community in the centre of Long Island, which is also the head office of Integrated Brands Inc., a frozen novelty company that CoolBrands bought in 1998 to get into the U.S. novelty business.
Analysts have said it has a clever business strategy with that hands off marketing and risk to world-scale, brand name companies. It has signed distribution agreements with such major retailers as 7-Eleven Inc. convenience stores, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Safeway Stores Inc.
International demand is strong for its brand names, Eskimo Pie ice cream, Tropicana desserts, Weight Watchers and Yoplaits frozen yogurt, many of which are sold in 80 countries around the world.
Shares of CoolBrands, traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol COB.A, currently sit in the $6.75 range. They are up 320 per cent from their 52-week low of $1.60. Over the past year, the shares have been as high as $8.15.
Last month, CoolBrands reported record third-quarter earnings, making $6.82-million or 13 cents per fully diluted share, up 67 per cent from the $4.09-million or 9 cents a share a year earlier.