Arbor’s Baking Platform Continues To Rise

The Bakery Companies, a portfolio company of Arbor Investments, has acquired Steck Wholesale Foods.

Steck is baker and distributor of English muffins and buttermilk biscuits to foodservice, self-distributing retailers, and wholesale distributors nationwide. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in North Sioux City, South Dakota.

The Bakery Companies (TBC) manufactures fresh and frozen breads, baked goods and dough products for foodservice, food manufacturing and retail customers in both the United States and the Caribbean. The company’s twelve baking lines at four facilities, with more than 500 employees, produce over seven million baked goods daily including buns, English muffins, rolls, biscuits, frozen dough, artisan breads and pastries.

TBC was founded in 1996 by Cordia and Tom Harrington and is headquartered in Nashville. Arbor acquired TBC in partnership with CEO Cordia Harrington in October 2019.

“We are delighted with the partnership of another group of passionate and talented bakers,” said Chris Tuffin, a partner at Arbor. “This is an exciting first step in our strategic growth of The Bakery Cos. We continue to look for opportunities to join forces with others, while simultaneously adding new capabilities and capacity organically, as evident by our recent groundbreaking to expand in Nashville.”

“Steck is a hand-in-glove fit for The Bakery Cos.,” said Ms. Harrington. “Their focus on manufacturing for retail customers is complementary to our existing strength in foodservice, and the South Dakota facility expands our geographic manufacturing footprint into the upper Midwest. We gain additional lines within our core English muffin and biscuit categories, which creates not only incremental capacity but also affords us both flexibility and redundancy in our manufacturing capabilities at geographically dispersed facilities. Providing a redundant supply chain is more critical to our customers today than ever before.”

Arbor invests in the food, beverage and related industries. Typical targets will have annual revenues of up to $300 million and EBITDA from $5 million to $50 million. Since founding in 1999, the firm has acquired or invested in over 70 North America-based food, beverage and related companies. In July 2016, Arbor closed its fourth equity fund, Arbor Investments IV LP, with $765 million of capital and its first subordinated debt fund, Arbor Debt Opportunities Fund I LP, with $125 million of capital. Arbor is headquartered in Chicago with an additional office in New York.