Hometown Food Company, a portfolio company of Brynwood Partners, has agreed to acquire the Chef Boyardee brand from Conagra Brands at an enterprise valuation of $600 million.
Chef Boyardee specializes in shelf-stable canned and microwaveable pasta meals including Beef Ravioli, Spaghetti & Meatballs, Mini Ravioli, and Beefaroni. Chef Boyardee ready-to-eat meals are designed for convenient preparation and are used by families, college students, and individuals seeking quick meal products.
Chef Boyardee products are distributed mainly through grocery stores, mass retailers, and dollar store chains across the United States, with additional presence in Canada and Puerto Rico.
The purchase of the Chef Boyardee brand includes an 820,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Milton, Pennsylvania, along with all related assets and operations. The Milton facility’s 500 employees will join Hometown Food’s operations, complementing its existing plants in the Northeast, Midwest, South Central, and Southeast regions.
Brynwood Partners formed Hometown Food Company in 2018 to acquire a portfolio of food brands from The J.M. Smucker Company for approximately $375 million. The acquired brands – at that time with annual revenues of approximately $200 million – included the U.S. rights to Pillsbury-branded shelf-stable baking products, Hungry Jack pancake mixes and syrups, Martha White, and White Lily flour brands.
Hometown Food expanded its portfolio through a series of acquisitions, including the 2019 purchase of Arrowhead Mills from The Hain Celestial Group for $15 million. Arrowhead Mills produces baking and dessert mixes, cold and hot cereals, flours, and pancake and waffle mixes. In 2021, Hometown Food acquired De Wafelbakkers, a manufacturer of branded, co-manufactured, and private label frozen pancakes, waffles, and French toast, from The Oklahoma Publishing Company, a subsidiary of the Anschutz Corporation. Most recently, in 2023, Hometown Food acquired Birch Benders, a producer of pancake and waffle mixes and frozen toaster waffles, from Sovos Brands.
“The Chef Boyardee acquisition marks the single largest acquisition in Brynwood’s 40-year history,” said Henk Hartong, the chairman and CEO of Brynwood Partners. “We are excited to add the iconic Chef Boyardee brand to the Hometown collection of nostalgic brands that offer a longstanding rich heritage. We have grown the Hometown portfolio by nearly twofold since we formed the business and are confident that we can reinvigorate the Chef Boyardee brand and extend into new formats quickly.”
With the addition of Chef Boyardee, Hometown Food now projects annual gross revenues of more than $1.6 billion, with approximately 1,500 employees across four U.S. manufacturing sites. The Chicago-headquartered company is led by CEO Tom Polke.
“We are thrilled to welcome Chef Boyardee into the Hometown family and will run the business from our corporate headquarters in Chicago,” said Mr. Polke. “We look forward to working with the Conagra team to effect a smooth transition of the business.”
Chef Boyardee was founded in 1928 by Italian immigrant Hector Boiardi in Cleveland, Ohio, after he gained popularity for his pasta recipes served at his restaurant, Il Giardino d’Italia (The Garden of Italy).
To meet customer demand for his sauces and pasta dishes, Mr. Boiardi began packaging and selling them under the brand “Chef Boy-Ar-Dee,” phonetically spelling his name for easier pronunciation. The company grew rapidly, expanding production to a large plant in Milton, Pennsylvania, in 1938. During World War II, Chef Boyardee supplied millions of rations to U.S. military troops. The company was sold to American Home Foods in 1946 and later became part of ConAgra when publicly traded American Home Foods (then International Home Foods) was acquired in 2000 at an enterprise value of $2.9 billion.
Brynwood Partners is an operationally focused firm that makes control investments in North American-based lower middle-market companies. The firm targets non-core brands or companies operating exclusively in the consumer sector.
Last month, Brynwood sold Harvest Hill Beverage Company, a maker of juice drinks, drink mixes, and beverage products, to Castillo Hermanos and Centerview Capital. The sale of Harvest Hill is the largest exit in Brynwood’s 40-year history. Brynwood formed Harvest Hill in 2014 to acquire the Juicy Juice brand from Nestlé. The company later expanded through a series of acquisitions: American Beverage Corporation in 2015 from Wessanen, Sunny Delight Beverages in 2016 from JW Childs, and Nutrament in 2016 from Nestlé.
Brynwood is currently investing out of Brynwood Partners IX LP, a $750 million fund closed in 2023. The firm targets companies with minimum revenues of $50 million and EBITDA of at least $5 million.
© 2025 Private Equity Professional | May 2, 2025
