The nation’s second-largest tobacco company, R.J. Reynolds, has offered $320 million to buy the Sante Fe, N.M.-based Sante Fe Natural Tobacco Co., maker of the American Spirit brand of natural and organic cigarettes. The offer follows a $275 million tender made by Canadian tobacco giant Rothman’s, which had five days to respond to the Reynolds offer. Santa Fe Natural Tobacco had sales of $99.6 million for FY00, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.
United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) subsidiary Albert’s Organics Inc. has purchased Louisville, Colo.-based Boulder Fruit Express, which provides organic produce and perishables to a market area that includes Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.