H.I.G. Capital has acquired Patriot Pickle from Swander Pace Capital.
Patriot Pickle is a maker of pickles and other fermented products including sauerkraut, peppers, and pickled green tomatoes that are sold in a range of cuts, flavors, and packaging formats including foodservice pails, retail quarts, and single-serve pouches.
The company’s private label and branded products – sold under the K&Z, Regal Crown Foods, Natural Harvest, PickleAde, Farm Ridge Foods, and First Place brands – are sold through the foodservice channel to distributors, restaurant chains, supermarkets, and delis. Wayne, New Jersey-headquartered Patriot Pickle was founded in 2004 and has more than 115,000 square feet of production facilities. The company is led by Bill McEntee, its founder and president, and Adam Ricci, the company’s chief operating officer.
Swander Pace first invested in Patriot Pickle in April 2021. “Managing the complexity and intensity of rapidly growing businesses is hard work but partnering with Swander Pace made this process easier, and we had fun along the way. SPC’s strategic perspective, network, and broader insights were key enablers of the team’s success,” said Mr. McEntee.
“Patriot Pickle’s impressive platform has grown significantly over the years by delivering on its commitment to the highest quality pickles and best-in-class service,” said Justin Reyna, a managing director at H.I.G. “We are pleased to partner with Bill, Adam, and the Patriot team and look forward to supporting the company in its organic and acquisition-driven growth initiatives.”
H.I.G. specializes in providing debt and equity capital to small and medium-sized companies and invests in management buyouts, recapitalizations, and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses.
H.I.G. is an experienced investor in the food and beverage industry with prior investments that include Lipari Foods (sold in 2022 to Littlejohn), Albertville Quality Foods (sold in 2017 to OK Foods), Tastes on the Fly (sold in 2023 to Paradies Lagardère), Ready Pac Foods (sold in 2017 to Bonduelle SA), Quick Restaurants (acquired in 2021), and Puerto de Indias (acquired in 2018).
MidCap Financial was the joint bookrunner and joint lead arranger on a senior secured credit facility to back the buy of Patriot Pickle. Managing Director T.J. Ceravolo led the MidCap transaction team. MidCap, in alliance with its investment manager Apollo Capital Management, is a middle-market-focused, specialty finance firm that provides debt instruments of $10 million to $750 million to companies across all industries.
Swander Pace invests in middle-market consumer products companies that have revenues of up to $500 million. Sectors of interest include food and beverage, body and wellness, and home and family. Swander Pace is headquartered in San Francisco with additional offices near New York City in Bedminster, New Jersey, and near Toronto in Mississauga, Ontario.
“It was a pleasure to work with the Patriot Pickle team. The team’s hard work and dedication have enabled a fantastic result and are a great example of SPC’s ability to partner with a founder to help accelerate growth and value. Patriot Pickle is a leader in the pickled and fermented foods category and is well-positioned for the future. We wish the team all the success going forward, and we are confident that Patriot Pickle will continue to deliver for its customers in the many years to come,” said Corby Reese and Tyler Matlock, managing directors at Swander Pace in a released statement.
William Blair and BMO Capital Markets were the financial advisors to H.I.G. on the purchase of Patriot Pickle.
© 2024 Private Equity Professional | January 19, 2024
Allentown, a portfolio company of Aterian Investment Partners, has closed the add-on acquisition of ClorDiSys Solutions.
“The acquisition of ClorDiSys represents core strategic initiatives to Allentown of expanding its total addressable market and introducing Allentown to sanitation, disinfection, and decontamination services,” said Daniel Phan, a managing director at Aterian. “As a family-owned and operated company we were thoroughly impressed by ClorDiSys’ products, services and customer-centric solutions and couldn’t be more excited about the partnership together. Allentown continues to establish itself as the acquisition platform of choice as we continue to transform Allentown into a broader solutions provider in the life sciences market.”
“ClorDiSys is a highly strategic fit within Allentown’s portfolio of products and services, and we look forward to leveraging Allentown’s broader infrastructure, personnel talent and customer relationships to drive accelerated results,” said Jorge Fabre, a principal at Aterian.
Clearlake Capital has sold all its remaining shares of Janus International Group (NYSE: JBI) and has now fully exited its investment in the company.
“Janus is an example of our O.P.S. (Operations, People, and Strategy) value creation framework in action,” added Nate Mejías, a principal at Clearlake. “In a few short years, Ramey and his team executed an effective buy-and-build playbook, bolstered the management team, diversified the business, grew internationally, and led the adoption of additional technologies within the category.”
Windjammer Capital Investors has closed its sixth fund, Windjammer Capital Fund VI LP, at its hard cap with $1.3 billion in capital commitments, markedly higher than its $1 billion target and 48% higher than the firm’s $870 million fifth fund.
“The success of this fundraise was highlighted by the backing from both existing and new investors, who understand and value the model we’ve built which focuses on finding investments whose core investment attributes provide downside protection as well as significant upside,” said Gregory Bondick, a managing principal of Windjammer. “We’re very appreciative of our investors’ support, particularly given the challenging environment, and look forward to working hard to reward their faith in Windjammer.”
“Investment in our operational resources has been critical to our partnerships with founders, entrepreneurs, and senior leadership teams at our portfolio companies,” said Jeffrey Miehe, a managing principal of Windjammer. “The capabilities our team brings for Fund VI, as with previous funds, are directed at helping our companies focus on growth and development and implementation of key operational initiatives that drive expansion of revenue and profits.”
In November 2023, Windjammer acquired its first Fund VI portfolio company with the buy of