Swander Pace Capital has acquired Café Valley, a maker of croissants, cakes, muffins, and other sweet baked goods, from a group of private individual shareholders.
Café Valley’s products are sold to the in-store bakery, club store, mass merchandise, foodservice, and convenience store segments. According to the company, they are one of the largest independent wholesale bakeries in the United States.
Café Valley, founded in 1986, operates two state-of-the-art production facilities in Phoenix, AZ (headquarters) and Marion, IN (www.cafevalley.com).
Current CEO and industry veteran Brian Owens will continue to serve as Café Valley’s chief executive officer under Swander Pace ownership. “Café Valley is already a leader in the category thanks to its long history, high-quality diversified product offering, unmatched customer service and best-in-class production facilities,” said Tyler Matlock, a director at Swander Pace. “Brian’s extensive experience, keen vision and deep knowledge of the bakery space make him an ideal partner to lead the company into its next phase of growth and expansion.”
The buy of Café Valley’s is Swander Pace’s most recent investment in the baked goods industry and follows the firm’s buys of Bäckerhaus Veit, a Canada-based maker of frozen and par-baked bread products (November 2018); Voortman Cookies, a Canada-based maker and marketer of cookies and wafers (October 2015); Pineridge Bakery, a Canada-based maker of frozen and fresh specialty baked goods (sold in 2014); Ideal Snacks, a Liberty, NY-based producer of puffed and baked snacks (sold in 2015); and Nonni’s, a Chicago-based maker of cookies and other baked snacks (sold in 2012).
“I am excited to work with the talented team at Swander Pace to increase our market share, product offering and distribution footprint,” said Mr. Owens. “They have deep understanding and experience in the competitive bakery niche, as well as a strong track record of giving companies the advice and backing they need to succeed.”
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. The firm was founded in 1996 and has offices in San Francisco; Bedminster, NJ; and near Toronto in Burlington, ON.
Cody Peak Advisors, an El Segundo, CA-based investment bank that specializes in the middle market food and beverage sector, was the financial advisor to Café Valley on this transaction.
© 2019 Private Equity Professional | September 10, 2019
Arbor Investments has sold Rise Baking to Olympus Partners. The sale of Rise Baking will result in a 7x gross return on Arbor’s Fund III investment.
“Over the last 20 years we have developed deep expertise in baking and saw an opportunity to deliver innovation and better-quality products to retailers and in-store bakeries,” said Arbor’s CEO Gregory Purcell. “Mike shared our vision and had the industry contacts and relationships that enabled us to build a phenomenal business.”
“Every add-on brought something different to the table,” said Arbor Partner Brody Lynn. “Each acquisition brought a new customer base, a new channel, or new capabilities that we could then use to build a one-stop shop offering innovative, high-quality products on a national basis.” Today, according to Arbor, Rise Baking is one of the fastest growing and largest independent bakeries in North America.
Arbor invests in the food, beverage and related industries. Typical targets will have annual revenues of up to $300 million and EBITDA from $5 million to $50 million. Since founding in 1999 the firm has acquired or invested in over 55 food and beverage companies in North America. In July 2016, Arbor closed its fourth equity fund, Arbor Investments IV LP, with$765 million of capital and its first subordinated debt fund, Arbor Debt Opportunities Fund I LP, with $125 million of capital. Arbor is based in Chicago (
CEO Mike Schultz and the other members of Rise’ management team will continue in their roles under Olympus Partners ownership. “The Rise management team has built a remarkable business that has led to impressive growth across all of their products and customers. Rise is a well-invested and highly attractive business in the bakery sector,” said Mike Horgan, a Partner at Olympus.
Olympus provides equity capital for middle market management buyouts and for companies needing capital for expansion. The firm invests in a wide array of industries but has specific expertise in business services; logistics and transportation; healthcare manufacturing and services; financial services; consumer and restaurant; and general industrial and packaging. In December 2017, Olympus held a final closing of its seventh institutional private equity fund, Olympus Growth Fund VII LP, with an oversubscribed $3 billion of capital commitments. The firm was founded in 1988 and is based in Stamford, CT (
“We’re excited the Ellis family decided to entrust the future of Ellison Bakery with Blackford Capital. Ellison has established itself as a premier industrial bakery and is known for its high quality and extreme flexibility in supporting a wide range of customers,” said Martin Stein, Founder and Managing Director of Blackford Capital. “The Ellis brothers had been looking for a financial partner that would help continue the legacy they had built with their father. We’re honored to play a part in Ellison’s next chapter and we look forward to investing in the business, the employees, and the community as we continue the story of growth at Ellison.”
