Kettle Cuisine, a portfolio company of Kainos Capital since August 2015, has acquired Harry’s Fresh Foods from JGC Foods, a portfolio company of Seattle-based family office Joshua Green Corporation.
Harry’s Fresh Foods is an outsourced, private label, contract manufacturer of soups, chilis, entrees, sides, sauces and desserts. The company is based in Portland, OR (www.harrysfresh.com).
Kettle Cuisine is a manufacturer of small-batch soups, sauces, and side dishes, serving the foodservice, national restaurant chain, and retail channels. The company offers both refrigerated and frozen product formats in single-serve and bulk packaging. Kettle Cuisine, led by CEO Liam McClennon, has four facilities in Lynn, MA (headquarters); Morgan Hill, CA; Green Bay, WI; and Union City, CA (www.kettlecuisine.com).
“Harry’s is a great business and a welcome addition to Kettle Cuisine,” said Mr. McClennon. “Its strong reputation in the marketplace reflects its high caliber team members, customer relationships, and premium product portfolio, all of which fit seamlessly into Kettle’s growth strategy.”
Since acquiring Kettle Cuisine in 2015, Kainos has closed a number of add-on acquisitions as follows: Chef Creations, an Orlando, FL-based contract maker of soup and sauces (February 2016); Del Monaco Foods, a Morgan Hill, CA-based contract maker of soups, sauces and other specialty items (July 2016); Bonewerks Culinart, a Green Bay, WI-based maker of sauce products for center-of-the-plate entrées and fully prepared sous vide (French for “under vacuum”) entrées (March 2018); the frozen soup business of Salem, OR-based NORPAC Foods (September 2018); and Savory Creations, a San Mateo, CA-based maker of broths, stocks, and sauces to the retail, foodservice and industrial channels (September 2018).
“When Kainos acquired Kettle, we embarked on a strategy to expand Kettle from a regional fresh soup provider to a category leader capable of serving an increasingly national customer base,” said Dan Hopkin, a partner at Kainos Capital. “The addition of Harry’s – together with prior acquisitions and investments in the areas of production capacity, product extensions, and automation – are all in line with this strategy. Kainos will continue to support additional opportunities to invest behind Kettle Cuisine’s growth strategy going forward.”
Kainos invests from $50 million to $150 million of equity in manufacturers and marketers of food products, as well as other consumer products in the household and personal care industries, and over-the-counter health and nutritional products sectors. In November 2016, Kainos closed Kainos Capital Partners II LP with total equity commitments of $895 million. The new fund was oversubscribed and closed at its hard cap. Kainos was founded in 2012 and is based in Dallas (www.kainoscapital.com).
© 2019 Private Equity Professional | April 8, 2019
