Littlejohn & Co. has acquired a majority equity interest in specialty food distributor Lipari Foods. The Lipari family, company management, H.I.G. Capital, and Sterling Investment Partners remain minority investors in the company. H.I.G. acquired a majority equity interest in Lipari Foods from Sterling in December 2018.
Lipari is a distributor of largely perishable perimeter-of-the-store, specialty, and branded food products. The company’s SKUs total more than 25,000 items – sourced from over 2,000 suppliers – across the deli, bakery, dairy, specialty retail, seafood, packaging, confections, ethnic, and organic categories. Lipari has approximately 9,500 customers – largely independent and specialty grocers across 25 states – and generates more than $1 billion of annual revenues.
In May 2022, Lipari acquired Syracuse-based Deli-Boy and its Rochester-based subsidiary Big Apple Deli Products. The two businesses serve more than 1,000 retailers in Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Connecticut, and New York. Earlier, in December 2021, Lipari acquire Minnesota-based Market Distributing, a food distributor that serves more than 570 retailers across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and North and South Dakotas.
Today, Lipari has approximately 2,400 employees and is headquartered near Detroit in Warren, Michigan. Jim Lipari, who began his career delivering BBQ sauce from the back of his Buick station wagon, founded Lipari Foods in 1963.
“Littlejohn’s proven ability of building and scaling distribution businesses will be valuable as we seek to expand our capabilities while continuing to deliver high-quality products and service for our longstanding customers,” said Thom Lipari, the chief executive officer of Lipari Foods and the son of the founder. “We look forward to leveraging the firm’s resources to accelerate our growth trajectory and execute on Lipari’s significant organic and acquisition growth initiatives.”
“Lipari builds upon Littlejohn’s deep expertise investing in value-added distribution platforms,” said Tony Miranda, a managing director of Littlejohn. “We have long admired Lipari and have been impressed with the company’s highly differentiated business model, tenured management team, and impressive track record of growth and operational excellence. We are excited to partner with Thom Lipari and the rest of the management team to support Lipari’s next phase of growth.”
Greenwich, Connecticut-based Littlejohn invests from $50 million to $250 million of equity in middle-market companies that have annual revenues of $100 million to $800 million. The firm invests across a range of industries including manufacturers, distributors, and service providers.
“We are excited to partner with Lipari given its compelling value proposition, diverse product portfolio, and superior service offering,” said Steven Kalter, a managing director of Littlejohn. “Under Thom’s leadership, Lipari has executed several strategic acquisitions that have positioned the company as a preeminent pure-play specialty food distribution platform in a highly fragmented sector. We look forward to building on Lipari’s strong market position and accelerating its acquisition program as it seeks to become the partner of choice to food retailers nationwide.”
Piper Sandler and Harris Williams were financial advisors to Lipari Foods on this transaction.
© 2022 Private Equity Professional | November 1, 2022
