Bolthouse Farms sees IPO or sale to private equity

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The company that made baby carrots popular is more likely to go public or be sold to a different private equity firm than be bought by a giant corporation, according to its CEO.

Bolthouse Farms, the nation's leading carrot processor, was acquired by private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners in 2005. The firm will want to exit its investment "at some point," Chief Executive Jeff Dunn said in an interview.

"We're not in any hurry to monetize," Dunn said, adding that he has a long horizon and would favor an exit strategy that lets him continue to run the company, which has about $700 million in annual sales.

"Being a public company would be interesting," Dunn said, adding that he was less enthusiastic about being acquired by a large corporation, such as Coca-Cola Co (KO.N), where he worked for two decades.

Bolthouse Farms and its rival Grimmway Farms, both based in Bakersfield, California, have a virtual duopoly on the U.S. carrot market. Bolthouse was also the first company to introduce baby carrots, Dunn said.

In addition to a marketing campaign for baby carrots that urges consumers to "Eat 'em like junk food," Bolthouse is working to drive sales with its bottled juices and salad dressings.

Bolthouse Farms drinks -- which include juices, smoothies and protein drinks -- are the No. 1 "super premium" refrigerated juice brand in the United States, overtaking Coca-Cola's Odwalla and PepsiCo Inc's (PEP.N) Naked Juice, Dunn said.

But the brand is still purchased only by a small percentage of U.S. households, in part because of price. Its larger bottles sell for $4.99, or about one dollar more than orange juice brands like PepsiCo's Tropicana and Coke's Simply Orange, Dunn said.

"If we can get down to where we're $3.99, now we're talking," Dunn said.

(Reporting by Martinne Geller; editing by Gunna Dickson)