Deal guru Irwin Simon, founder and CEO of Hain Celestial, knows how to make mergers work. SIMON 2 Last April was a busy time at Hain Celestial Group. At its corporate headquarters on Long Island, not far from Manhattan, the organic and natural foods company was fast approaching its first $2 billion sales year. Irwin D. Simon–founder, chairman, CEO and president—was as usual perusing roll-up deals. At the moment, Simon was hot on the trail of an organic bakery called Rudi’s in Boulder, Colorado. Rudi’s was located near the Celestial Seasonings tea line he bought in 2000. Later that month, Simon shook hands with the Charter Equity Partners deal team, paid the PE firm $61.3 million in cash and common stock and walked away owning an organic bakery. The bolt-on acquisition gave Hain Celestial about 60 new better-for you products, including wraps, pizza crusts, breads and bagels. Simon was happy to enter the fast-growing market for wholegrain, organic and gluten-free baked products without having to develop a product line from scratch. In many ways, Rudi’s meets the classic Irwin Simon roll-up profile. Rudi’s has proven consumer appeal and enjoyed niche success, yet seemed stuck. Having been around since the early ’70s, the company’s products rang up on average barely $1 million a year. Growth seemed to have stalled. In announcing the deal, Simon disclosed plans to take Rudi’s “into new categories” through Hain’s wide-pipe distribution channels. He promised he’d bring Rudi’s into supermarkets, club channels and specialty stores around the world. It was a smart bet he’d do just that. It was also a smart bet Simon would also do what he’d done dozens of times before: find ways to consolidate operations, possibly contract out manufacturing, and of course find those trademark synergies available through his global network reaching […]