Gourmet Culinary Partners, a portfolio company of AUA Private Equity Partners, has acquired Holiday Foods from Schwan’s Company.
Hollywood, Florida-based Holiday Foods is a developer and marketer of appetizers and hors d’oeuvres sold to distributors, luxury hotels, private clubs, banquet houses, and caterers.
AUA formed Gourmet Culinary Partners (GCP) in May 2019 as a platform to acquire US-based premium specialty food manufacturers serving the foodservice and retail sectors. With the acquisition of Holiday Foods, GCP has now completed five add-on acquisitions. The four earlier buys were:
- Van-Lang Enterprises, an Illinois-based manufacturer and distributor of appetizers and hors d’oeuvres (acquired in January 2020);
- Gourmet Kitchen, a New Jersey-based manufacturer of specialty prepared foods for hotels, restaurants, universities, corporate campuses, and distributors. The company’s products include appetizers, hors d’oeuvres, breakfast items, ethnic products, and desserts (acquired in March 2019);
- Kabobs, a Georgia-based manufacturer of hors d’oeuvres, side items and ethnic and breakfast products that are sold to foodservice operators, hotels, convention centers, corporate campuses, professional caterers and universities (acquired in April 2019); and
- Gourmet Foods, a California-headquartered manufacturer and distributor of specialty prepared foods including soups, sauces, hors d’oeuvres, appetizers, side items, and breakfast dishes serving the airline, hospitality, restaurant, catering, retail and corporate campuses industries (acquired in July 2019).
The combination of these five acquisitions provides GCP with a national footprint that allows the company to serve national accounts in the hospitality, banquet, airline, retail, education, and corporate sectors with a portfolio of appetizers, hors d’oeuvres, breakfast foods, side dishes, soups, sauces, and entrees.
GCP is led by CEO Ronan Minahan; CFO Terra Jacobs; SVP – Human Resources Julie Cunningham; and VP of Supply Chain Robbie Scott. AUA assembled this team of experienced food executives beginning in August 2019. Mr. Minahan is the former president of ARYZTA America, a Chicago-based maker of breads, cookies, donuts, pastries, buns, and flatbreads sold to major retailers, food service providers and restaurants.
“Our aim at GCP is to partner with our customers, both at a national and a local level, to help fuel their culinary success through a shared passion to create on-trend, innovative, consistently high quality, real food that delivers authentic experiences,” said Mr. Minahan. “We are delighted to have Holiday Foods join our partnership, allowing all of our customers to benefit from our integrated and growing platform.”
The buy of Holiday Foods was led by Managing Director Kyce Chihi, Vice President Ari David, and Winter Associate, Nicolas Pflaum.
New York City-based AUA Private Equity makes equity investments from $20 million to $75 million in companies with at least $5 million of EBITDA. Sectors of interest include consumer products and services with a focus on family-owned businesses and companies benefiting from the growth of the US Hispanic population.
Schwan’s Company, the seller of Holiday Foods, is a manufacturer of frozen food products sold to grocery stores and foodservice companies. The company is headquartered 125 miles west of Minneapolis in Marshall, Minnesota. In February 2019, the founding Schwan family sold a majority of the company to CJ Cheil Jedang, a publicly traded South Korean food company based in Seoul.
© 2020 Private Equity Professional | March 6, 2020
