PANOS Brands, a portfolio company of Hammond, Kennedy, Whitney & Company (HKW), has acquired Walden Farms, a provider of branded calorie-free foods.
Walden Farms’ products span several categories and include salad dressings, syrups, coffee creamers, and sauces. The company was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Linden, NJ (www.waldenfarms.com).
“Walden Farms represents exactly what we were looking for in an add-on acquisition,” said John Carsello, an HKW Partner. “The loyal customer base, strong financial profile, and health and wellness attributes of the brand resonated with us.”
PANOS Brands manages a portfolio of specialty food and beverage brands that includes dairy products, rice crackers, snacks, ready-to-eat meals, cooking ingredients, ginger cookies, cooking pastes, soy-based cheese, soy and rice beverages, baking ingredients, and many other items. Company owned brand names include Andrew & Everett, KA-ME, MI-DEL, Sesmark, Amore and Chatfield’s. PANOS, led by President and CEO Steven Grossman, was founded in 2006 and is based in Rochelle Park, NJ (www.panosbrands.com).
“Walden Farms has a premium brand name, broad product offering, and established presence at retail, which makes the company an ideal fit with PANOS,” said Mr. Grossman. “We look forward to creating incremental demand for Walden Farms products with increased exposure, formulation enhancements, and new product introductions.”
PANOS brands was acquired by HKW in January 2016 from High Road Capital Partners which in turn had purchased the company in January 2010 from Koninklijke Wessanen, an Amsterdam-based multinational food company with a focus on organic and natural food products (www.wessanen.com).
Hammond, Kennedy, Whitney & Company invests in companies with revenues between $20 million and $200 million and EBITDAs between $5 million and $20 million. Since 1982, HKW has completed 53 platform management buyouts of small middle-market companies throughout North America as well as 57 add-on acquisitions. The firm was founded in 1903 and is headquartered in Indianapolis with an additional office in New York (www.hkwinc.com).
Walden Farms was represented by Mazars USA (www.mazarsusa.com) in this transaction.
© 2017 Private Equity Professional | February 22, 2017
