Purewater Foods, a new platform company formed by Tricor Pacific Founders Capital, has acquired Presteve Foods, a harvester, processor and distributor of wild freshwater fish sourced from the Great Lakes and other Canadian, US and European freshwater fisheries.
Presteve Foods specializes is supplying fresh and frozen fish – whether whole, dressed, filleted or breaded/battered – to wholesalers, distributors and retail customers in the US and Canada. The company was founded in 1979 and is headquartered southeast of Detroit in Wheatley, Ontario (www.prestevefoods.com).
Purewater Foods will be the holding company for Presteve and future, seafood-related investments made by Tricor Pacific Founders Capital (Tricor Founders). “We found the right partner in Tricor Founders,” said Ulysses Pratas, Presteve’s owner. “I appreciated their longer term investment horizon, and they bring the right industry-specific skill set to help take Presteve to the next level.”
Purewater Foods is partnering with Mr. Pratas, who has led impressive growth at Presteve over the last several years, to expand the company’s processing capacity and capabilities, extend the company’s offering into adjacent seafood products and markets, and acquiring other seafood-related businesses.
“This investment in Presteve Foods is consistent with our strategy of making control investments in food and other consumer packaged goods businesses that have EBITDAs of $2 to $8 million and are based across the Mid-West and Western US, and Canada,” said Richard Harris of Tricor Founders.
Tricor Founders is led by its three managing directors – Richard Harris, Rod Senft, and Trevor Johnstone – and is based in Vancouver, BC (www.tricorfounders.com). Mr. Harris and vice president Derek Senft led the transaction for Tricor Founders.
Collins Barrow (www.collinsbarrow.com) provided transaction advisory services to Tricor Founders and Bank of Montreal (www.bmo.com) provided financing. PricewaterhouseCoopers acted as advisor to Presteve Foods.
2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 5-5-15