Husband and wife of Clif Bar owners accept $3 billion cash withdrawal from Mondelez

Mondelez International, the snack food group that owns brands like Oreo, Ritz, Trident, Trident, Stride, and Chips Ahoy! …among many other companies…just announced that they have reached an agreement to add a new brand to their roster: Cliff Bar.

Buy Mondelez Clif Bar (who also owns the Luna snack brand) for her $2.9 billion.

The brand of snacks obtained is probably not usually that interesting – enough to justify the Celebrity Net Worth story. However, the history of Clif Bar and the current ownership structure is somewhat unique. Unlike most food brands that have been around for decades and that eventually sold for billions, Clif Bar was not owned by dozens of investors and venture capitalists. Cliff Barr was a small family affair.

First, founder Gary Erickson worked with his mother, a master baker, to create the first pieces of Clif Bars. Second, Gary named the company after his father Clifford, a man who encouraged him to follow his passion and appreciation for wildlife. Finally, at the time of the sale, Clif Bar was majority owned by just two people: Gary and Kit Crawford… his wife, and longtime co-CEO.

Kate Crawford and Gary Erickson (Photo by Liz Havalia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

Epiphany

A tale as old as time: Necessity was the mother of Cliff Barr’s invention.

In 1990, Gary Erickson ran a bakery in Emeryville, California. He loved baking but hated running a bakery – especially a bakery who was struggling to make ends meet. The primary purpose of being his own boss and running the bakery was to provide a lifestyle where he could climb rocks and ride bikes whenever he wanted. Instead, he found himself chained to a bakery 24/7 in an effort to make the business work.

One morning, Gary and his friend managed to escape 125 miles by bike through the mountains. For nutrition, Gary brought in six energy bars.

Gary and his friend ended up riding 175 miles that day and along the way Gary ate five of his six energy bars. He was still starving after the fifth, but he couldn’t stand another”Unappetizing bar, viscous, difficult to digest.

He would describe this moment later as “Epiphany.

As you know almost three decades later, that moment was actually a Epiphany of billions of dollars.

mom helps

Practically, Gary drove the car straight from his trip to his mother’s house. His mother was the best baker he knew. Together they spent the next six months experimenting and perfecting. After thousands of failed attempts, they’ve finally come to a bar that contains the right blend of nutritious ingredients and delicious taste. The last winning product was actually a remix of his mother’s recipe for oatmeal + chocolate chip cookies.

Gary named their creation “Cliff Bar” in honor of his father Clifford, who taught him to enjoy and appreciate the wilderness and always encouraged him to follow his interests in life.

After getting taste-test approval from friends, my neighbor went door-to-door to bike stores across the Bay Area to make the first sales.

take a partner

In the early days, Gary knew he needed and wanted a business partner. For this role, he had a friend named Kate Crawford on his mind. It’s also possible that he wanted to know if Kit was available romantically. Unfortunately, Kit wasn’t available romantically or professionally, so Gary ended up partnering with a woman named Lisa Thomas, only on professional terms. They split the company 50-50.

Reject takeover bids

By the year 2000, just under a decade after Epiphany, Clif Bars were available for purchase in thousands of stores across the United States and even around the world. The company was generating $40 million in revenue.

In 2000, Quaker Oats knocked on a takeover offer. It was a Quaker show…

120 million dollars

After pondering the show for some time, Gary decided to refuse. Lisa was not happy. So Gary offered to buy its 50% stake at the $120 million valuation. It took a decade to pay off the acquisition. Gary eventually paid Lisa $72 million with interest.

Kate Crawford is back

By 2004, Kate Crawford’s first marriage had ended. Gary arrived and they quickly fell in love.

Not only did they fall in love and marry, but Kate also came to be the co-CEO of Clif Bar. They ran the company together until 2020 when they finally let a new CEO take over.

The item is out of market

Twenty years after turning down that $120 million offer, Gary and Kit finally agreed to sell Clif Bar to Mondelez for $2.9 billion. Ex-partner Lisa’s 50% stake, which was bought for $72 million, is now officially $1.45 billion.

With the sale, after taxes, the husband and wife team would be left with a combined net worth of about $2 billion, essentially doubling their previous paper net worth (which was based on previous estimated valuations).

But Gary and Kit aren’t actually the only people who would make money selling Mondelez. In 2010, Clif Bar launched an employee stock ownership plan that allowed its employees to earn shares. It is impossible to know how many employees have benefited from the program and to what degree. We hope a lot.

The story ends everywhere!



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