Teasdale Quality Foods, a manufacturer and marketer of Hispanic foods and a portfolio company of Palladium Equity Partners, has acquired Zateca Foods and Greeley Trading Company (together, “Zateca”), a processor and supplier of packaged pre-cooked dehydrated beans.
Zateca is a vertically-integrated producer of pre-cooked dehydrated beans, selling to a variety of institutional foodservice providers, ingredient/spice manufacturers, commissaries and branded food manufacturers. Its main product offerings include: refried bean mix, pre-cooked dry whole beans, bean flakes, bean powder, bean granules and quick cooking beans. Zateca is based in Greeley, CO (www.zateca.com).
“Zateca is a well-known and highly regarded supplier of high-quality bean products that has leveraged its unique dehydration technology to provide great tasting products at very competitive prices. This acquisition will significantly expand Teasdale’s reach and growing customer base, and will further enhance the company’s operations east of the Rockies. At the same time, Zateca will benefit from Teasdale’s scale and marketing expertise in offering a wide range of branded and private label products to meet the needs of a diverse customer base,” said Luis Zaldivar, a Managing Director at Palladium.
Kregg Listen, President of Zateca, will remain with the company as General Manager of its Dehydrated Bean Division. “For more than two decades, Zateca has endeavored to provide kitchens with great tasting and easy to use bean ingredients. We are very excited to be joining an established industry leader like Teasdale, which will better position us to pursue growth opportunities and enable us to bring our products to more customers across the United States,” said Mr. Listen.
Teasdale Quality Foods, acquired by Palladium in September 2011, is the largest producer and marketer of canned hominy and beans in the Western United States, primarily serving the Hispanic market under its Teasdale brand and other branded products such as Aunt Penny’s and Emilio’s. The company was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in Atwater, CA (www.teasdale.net).
“We believe that this is a strong strategic fit both operationally and culturally. Zateca, like Teasdale, was established with the goal of providing shelf-stable bean products that are easy to prepare and do not compromise on quality or nutritional value. We are further delighted that Kregg Listen will be joining us to lead our Dehydrated Bean Division. We look forward to benefiting from his deep experience as we continue to pursue opportunities to bring great tasting products to our broad and growing customer base,” said Alberto Bandera, CEO of Teasdale.
OneWest Bank located in Pasadena, CA (www.owb.com) and Zions Bank located in Salt Lake City, UT (www.zionsbank.com) provided financing for the transaction.
Palladium Equity Partners targets investments in business services companies as well as in financial services, consumer/retail, food/restaurants, healthcare, industrial and media businesses. Palladium has a focus on companies that operate in the US Hispanic market. The principals of Palladium have invested over $1.5 billion of equity in 50 portfolio companies over the last two decades. The firm was founded in 1997 and is based in New York (www.palladiumequity.com).
© 2012 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 12-20-12
