Pyrex-Owner Corelle Cooks Up Merger With Instant Pot Maker
Pyrex-Owner Corelle Cooks Up Merger With Maker of Instant Pot
(Bloomberg) -- Corelle Brands LLC, the maker of Pyrex and CorningWare kitchen products, agreed to merge with Instant Brands Inc., the company behind the popular Instant Pot cooker.
Financial terms weren’t disclosed in a joint statement Monday. The combined business will have an enterprise value of more than $2 billion, according to a person familiar with the deal who asked not to be identified because the details are private. Corelle Chief Executive Officer Ken Wilkes will become CEO of the new company, while Robert Wang, Instant Brand’s founder and CEO, will serve as chief innovation officer.
The merger brings together two closely held companies whose brands have been staples of home cooking. Ottawa-based Instant Brands’ Instant Pot combines the functions of a pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker and steamer, and some models have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. Instant Pots and competing products flew off the shelves of J.C. Penney Co., Walmart Inc., Kohl’s Corp. and other retailers during the holiday season. They have attracted a die-hard following of home chefs in recent years for their ease -- just dump in the ingredients and voila.
Corelle’s other brands include the Corelle line of tableware and Chicago Cutlery. Pyrex has its roots in 1915. The company formerly known as WKI Holding Co. was bought by Cornell Capital in 2017.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the second quarter. Stifel Nicolaus & Co. served as financial adviser to Corelle Brands, while Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP provided legal advice. For Instant Brands, CIBC was its financial adviser and Dentons Canada LLP was its legal adviser.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jeff Sutherland in Tokyo at jsutherlan13@bloomberg.net;Aviel Brown in New York at abrown611@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: K. Oanh Ha at oha3@bloomberg.net, ;Anne Riley Moffat at ariley17@bloomberg.net, Jonathan Roeder, Lisa Wolfson
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