The PPC-owned baker adds House-Autry Mills, a North Carolina maker of breaders, batters and dry mixes.
House-Autry makes the dry coatings and mixes that restaurants and home cooks use before food goes into the fryer or the oven. Specific products include its chicken breader and seafood breader used for fish, shrimp, catfish, and hushpuppies.
September 17, 2026|John McNulty
C.H. Guenther, a San Antonio maker of baked goods, tortillas and sauces owned by PPC, has acquired House-Autry Mills, a North Carolina producer of breaders, batters and dry mixes whose roots date to 1812.
The acquisition is the seventh add-on for C.H. Guenther (CHG) since PPC, the Chicago private equity firm also known as Pritzker Private Capital, bought the company from the Guenther family in 2018. It is CHG’s third add-on in the past 15 months.
House-Autry makes the dry coatings and mixes that restaurants and home cooks use before food goes into the fryer or the oven. Specific products include its chicken breader and seafood breader used for fish, shrimp, catfish, and hushpuppies.
The company’s product line also includes biscuit, cornbread, pancake and waffle mixes, gravy mixes, seasonings, marinades and grits. The company sells under the House-Autry name and under the Captain Foods and SharkBite brands, which it acquired in 2019 from Florida-based Captain Foods.
House-Autry products are sold through retail grocers and through the foodservice channel to quick-service restaurants, convenience stores and institutional kitchens. A large part of the company’s business is custom formulation, developing breaders and seasonings to a customer’s specifications and producing them under the customer’s name.
The House family started the business as a mill in Newton Grove, North Carolina, in 1812. It merged with Autry Bros. Milling in 1967 to form House-Autry Mills and moved into breaders and mixes in 1970. The House family sold the company in 1990, and House-Autry relocated to Four Oaks in 2001.
Today, House-Autry, led by President and Chief Financial Officer Derrick Marconi, is headquartered about 30 miles southeast of Raleigh in Four Oaks, North Carolina, with an additional facility in Georgia.
Derrick Marconi
“We are excited to join the C.H. Guenther family and begin this next chapter for House-Autry,” said Mr. Marconi. “CHG deeply respects our family legacy and commitment to quality, service, innovation and care for customers and employees. This combination creates new opportunities to invest in our capabilities and expand our reach while continuing to deliver the Southern-crafted flavor and partnership our customers have trusted for generations.”
C.H. Guenther makes artisan bread, biscuits, buns, tortillas, desserts, flour, pizza dough, sauces, gravies, seasonings and appetizers for grocery, foodservice and restaurant customers. Its brands include Pioneer, White Wings, Tribeca Oven, Sun-Bird, Cuisine Adventures, Morrison’s, CookieTree Bakeries, Mi Rancho, The Great American, and Williams.The company employs more than 5,000 people at 30 manufacturing locations in the US, Canada and Western Europe. German immigrant Carl Hilmar Guenther founded the business in 1851 with a mill on Live Oak Creek near Fredericksburg, Texas, and moved it to San Antonio in 1859. Rod Hepponstall, the former chief executive officer of High Liner Foods, has led CHG since November 2023.
“House-Autry is an outstanding strategic fit for CHG,” said Mr. Hepponstall. “The company brings a rare combination of deep heritage, trusted customer relationships, strong custom formulation capabilities and a reputation for quality and service. Together, we will be even better positioned to reach more customers and help them create custom products and memorable food experiences, while driving long-term financial growth.”
PPC acquired CHG from the Guenther family in April 2018, when the company had 2,500 employees and 19 plants. Its first three add-ons under PPC came in quick succession: Cookietree Bakeries, a Salt Lake City-based maker of cookies, cookie dough, brownies and scones (2018); Wback, a German maker of hamburger and hot dog buns with plants in Bönen and Leipheim (2019); and Mid South Baking, a Texas-based baker of buns and English muffins for McDonald’s restaurants (2019).
Additional acquisitions include Baldinger Bakery and Sons Bakery, a Minnesota-based bakers of buns and rolls for quick-service chains (2022); Fresca Mexican Foods, an Idaho-based maker of tortillas and chips (2025); and Mejicano Foods, a Montreal-based maker of flour tortillas (2026).
The buy of House-Autry extends CHG into dry mixes and custom-formulated coatings, which the company says strengthens its position in ingredients that deliver authentic Southern flavor.
Batter and breader mixes are a small but steady corner of the food ingredients market. US sales reached about $838 million in 2025 and are expected to climb to roughly $1.4 billion by 2035, according to Global Market Insights. Mordor Intelligence sizes the global market at $3.2 billion in 2026, growing about 6.2% a year through 2031, with North America accounting for 36.2% of sales in 2025. The firm puts the broader US seasonings and spices market at about $2.9 billion in 2025.
Private equity firms have been active in seasonings and flavors. Advent International agreed in January 2025 to acquire Sauer Brands, the Virginia-based owner of Duke’s mayonnaise and Kernel Season’s popcorn seasonings, from Falfurrias Capital Partners. In October 2025, Graham Partners-backed Woodland Gourmet acquired International Spices, a maker of custom seasoning blends. Earlier this month, The Watkins Company agreed to buy Sauer’s spice and seasonings business.
Phil Iler
“This combination reflects CHG’s continued momentum as it expands its portfolio through complementary, value-added food manufacturers with differentiated innovative capabilities,” said Phil Iler, a principal at PPC. “House-Autry’s heritage, customer relationships and custom dry mix capabilities are highly complementary to CHG, and we look forward to continuing to support this terrific business in its next phase of growth.”
PPC invests $100 million to $400 million of equity, with the ability to deploy up to $750 million, in North American companies with enterprise values between $200 million and $2 billion and EBITDA above $15 million. Sectors of interest include packaging, food, specialty industrial, business services, commercial and facility services, industrial and environmental services, and supply chain and distribution.
PPC is investing from its fourth fund, which closed in August 2025 with $3.4 billion of oversubscribed capital. In January, PPC acquired NaturPak, a Wisconsin-based maker of bone broths, soups and wet pet food, from Trivest Partners. PPC is headquartered in Chicago, with an office in Los Angeles.
The company employs more than 5,000 people at 30 manufacturing locations in the US, Canada and Western Europe. German immigrant Carl Hilmar Guenther founded the business in 1851 with a mill on Live Oak Creek near Fredericksburg, Texas, and moved it to San Antonio in 1859. Rod Hepponstall, the former chief executive officer of High Liner Foods, has led CHG since November 2023.
