Cott acquires Mountain Valley Spring Company

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Stock pic: getty/blackjack3D (Getty Images)

Cott Corporation subsidiary DS Services has acquired The Mountain Valley Spring Company, a US brand of spring and sparkling water, for $78.5m.

Mountain Valley is a home and office distribution ("HOD") brand, which has been bottling in glass since 1871, with one production facility in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and four protected and owned springs in the Ouachita Mountains.

Channels of business include HOD, the natural food channel, on-premise, e-commerce and strategic contract packing.

Over the years the company has added sparkling and flavored sparkling water in its glass bottles; as well as plastic bottles in its sparkling and spring lines.

Mountain Valley has grown revenue from approximately $39m in 2015 to over $50m in estimated sales for 2018, with high single digit growth expectations for 2019.

Tom Harrington, Cott’s Head of Route Based Services and incoming CEO, said: "The Mountain Valley acquisition is another positive step in building out our water solutions portfolio and meeting our stated desire to continue to pursue acquisitions in the growing water and coffee segments, where we believe our platform, operating strength and synergies can be leveraged."

The purchase price was $78.5m, on a debt and cash free basis, representing approximately 8x estimated year 2 post-synergy adjusted EBITDA.