"Small Brands", Big Owners

Small Brands, Big Owners

What have organic brands Health Valley (cereals), Bearitos (corn chips), Bread Shop (granola) and Celestial Seasonings (tea) have in common? These apparently independent companies are all owned by the Hain Celestial Group

Even though Hain Celestial is an organic giant in its own right, it has even bigger owners. According to research by Paul Glover and Carole Resnick of the Greenstar Food Coop (Ithaca, New York) the company's investors include Philip Morris, Monsanto, Citigroup, Exxon-Mobil, Wal-Mart and aerospace military contractor Lockheed Martin. And in September 1999 the H. J. Heinz food conglomerate bought a 20% stake in Hain Celestial.

Hain Celestial is by no means a unique case:

* Cascadian Farms is a subsidiary of Small Planet Foods, which is a division of agribusiness colossus General Mills. And General Mill's main shareholders include Philip Morris, Exxon-Mobil, General Electric, Chevron, Nike, McDonald's, Monsanto, Dupont, Dow Chemical and PepsiCo.

* Silk Soy Drink is part of the White Wave corporation, itself a Dean Foods subsidiary. And according to Glover and Resnick, Dean Foods' main investors include Microsoft, General Electric, Citigroup, Pfizer, Philip Morris, Exxon-Mobil, Coca Cola, Wal-Mart, PepsiCo and Home Depot.

* Odwalla, makers of organic orange juice, is owned by Minute Maid, which is in turn a division of Coca Cola.

* Boca Burger is owned by Kraft, which is part of Philip Morris.

* Arrowhead Water and Poland Spring Water, are Nestle subsidiaries.

* Organic Cow, founded by small New England organic dairy farmers, is now part of the Colorado-based Horizon, whose sales just topped $200 million annually and which controls 70% of the American organic milk market . Horizon Holding company was itself was acquired by the Dean Foods conglomerate in 2003.