A Lunch Box Summer
Summer is in full swing and so is this issue of Lunch Box.
Let’s get to it!
REAL ESTATE HIGHLIGHTS
Athletic Brewing expands in San Diego, again.
Athletic Brewing announced it purchased Ballast Point’s 107,000-square-foot facility in San Diego across the street from its existing brewery for an undisclosed sum. The new manufacturing plant will help the company double its capacity to brew its nonalcoholic beer, both flagship and limited offerings. The brewer said the plant will be capable of filling 1,200 cans of its beer per minute, and that its new brewing technology will reduce water use. Athletic is also installing new packaging lines and enhancing its operations to meet food safety and quality requirements. The new facility will begin operating in late 2025. (source: San Diego Beer News)
Vital Farms, a Certified B Corporation that offers eggs, butter, and ghee, is expanding its footprint and is building a second egg-washing and packing facility located in Seymour, Indiana. Vital Farm’s first facility is located in Springfield, Missouri, which opened in 2017. The company said it is building its Egg Central Station Seymour facility similar to its Missouri facility. Vital Farms expanded its Missouri facility in May 2022 to accommodate additional capacity to continue growing its pasture-raised egg business. The company is expected to break ground in mid-2025 and expects the facility to be operational at the beginning of 2027. (source: Food Business News)
SunOpta has injected $26 million into its shelf-stable oat milk production site in Modesto, California. The money was used by the group to build a new oat extraction production line at the plant, which started operations last month. SunOpta claims the addition is its "second largest" expansion project completed to date in the US. The move is expected to help the group grow its annual oat milk production by 60% starting from 2025, it told Just Food. (source: Yahoo Finance)
NOTABLE AGREEMENTS, FUNDINGS & ACQUISITIONS
Plant-based ‘meat’ startup Tender received a new cash infusion of $11 million in Series A funding. Rhapsody Venture Partners led the round and was joined by existing investors like Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital and Safar Partners and new investors Claridge Partners and Nor’easter Ventures. In 2022, the company raised $12 million in seed funding. (source: Tech Crunch)
Soda brand Slice is getting a revamped look and formula after being acquired by Suja Life. Slice is a fruit-flavored soda that began its tenure in 1980. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Suja Life, a maker of organic cold-pressed juices and parent company of Suja Organic and Vive Organic, said it is planning to reintroduce Slice in 2025 with classic flavors that feature low calories and natural ingredients. (source: Food Processing)
New York City-based ByHeart, the next-generation infant nutrition company, announced it has secured $95 million in additional financing to support the continued US commercial launch and development of its innovation pipeline. To date, ByHeart has raised a total of $395 million from investors, including D1 Capital Partners, Bellco Capital, Polaris Partners, Two River, OCV Partners, AF Ventures, Red Sea Ventures, Gaingels, and more. The company also announced the completion of its full end-to-end domestic manufacturing chain, with new manufacturing facilities in Portland, Oregon, and Allerton, Iowa, enabling the brand to expand production of its breakthrough formula to meet the needs of 15% of the addressable market. (source: PR Newswire)
Canadian agri-food company Lassonde Industries has agreed to acquire The Zidian Group, which operates Summer Garden Food Manufacturing, for $235 million. Located in Boardman, Ohio, US, Summer Garden employs about 200 people and produces a variety of premium sauces and condiments, including pasta sauces, BBQ sauces, dipping sauces, and dressings. Its 250 products are sold in over 20,000 locations under the Gia Russa, Little Italy in the Bronx, and G Hughes brands. The Canadian food company will pay up to $45 million in various installments over the next three years if certain financial targets are met and other conditions are fulfilled. Due to the investment's tax deductibility, the transaction is structured to provide Lassonde with a benefit of approximately $30 million in net present value. (source: FoodBev)
Home Market Foods (HMF) has acquired the former Carla’s Pasta production plant in South Windsor, Connecticut. HMF said it plans to convert the plant into a meat processing facility. The company plans to invest $70 million in the project. The facility is anticipated to open in June 2025. By the end of 2027, HMF expects to create 210 jobs to operate the site. The company has begun recruiting for various positions, including engineers, maintenance workers, managers, technicians, warehouse and production line workers. (source: Yahoo Finance)
Engelman’s Baking Co., a wholesale baking company offering a line of fresh and frozen bread products, has acquired St. Armands Baking Co. from Hyde Park Capital. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Headquartered in Bradenton, Florida, St. Armands began as a retail cake and pastry shop in St. Armands Key, which is in central Florida. Based in Norcross, Georgia, Engelman’s Baking Co. was founded in 1982 as a full-line retail bakery. The retail operation evolved into a 100% wholesale business, and in 1997, the company relocated to its current 50,000-square-foot facility in Norcross. The company’s products include bread (sourdough, white, wheat, multigrain, rye, pumpernickel, and marble), buns, sub rolls, sliders, ciabatta, baguettes, boule, and challah. Engelman’s is a portfolio company of Shoreline Equity Partners, LLC, a private equity firm. Shoreline has more than $750 million of committed capital under management and seeks to lead equity investments of up to $150 million per transaction in support of buyouts, recapitalization, and corporate divestitures. (source: Baking Business)
Mississippi-based Cal-Maine Foods, the largest egg producer by volume in the U.S., last week acquired ISE America, one of the top 25 egg producers, for $110 million in cash. The purchase will give Cal-Maine access to ISE’s facilities, which account for roughly 4,000 acres of land and 4.7 million egg-laying hens, one million of which are cage-free. Cal-Maine will also obtain feed mills and an egg products breaking facility, according to the press release. Sherman Miller, Cal-Maine’s president and CEO, said the purchase will help the egg producer expand capacity in the Northeast, where it does not have a strong presence. The transaction will include production assets in Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey. (source: Food Dive)
WHAT I’M CONSUMING (AND ENJOYING!)
🍻 Non-alcoholic beers are here to stay, according to this Food Dive article. Retail sales of non-alcoholic beer were around $1.2 billion in the U.S. last year. Shufelt expressed optimism that non-alcoholic beer could eventually control up to 20% of the more than $100 billion beer category within the next decade.
🧀 Food-tech start-up NewMoo, Ltd. makes its debut in the “happy cow” space by using plant molecular farming (PMF) to produce casein proteins for making cheese. Caseins comprise about 80% of the proteins in dairy milk. The resulting product allows cheesemakers to deliver the same genuine cheese experience as traditional dairy cheese via a cost-effective, animal-free, and sustainable pathway.
Image courtesy of Laoban.
🥟 Laoban is expanding beyond its fan-favorite dumplings with the launch of bao buns. Rolling out this June in select Whole Foods Market locations, Laoban is bringing new frozen options to consumers seeking quick and elevated anytime meals. Beginning as a dumpling shop in Washington, DC in 2017, Laoban has since expanded its flagship frozen dumpling line nationally through retailers such as Whole Foods Market, Costco, Sprouts and Erewhon. With the success of its core assortment of chef-driven frozen dumplings, Laoban is expanding on its mission to offer accessible and high-quality Asian frozen foods.
🍯 Reinventing honey through a plant-based alternative. “We take the same plants that the bees in nature would visit and turn them into honey. It’s a process that can be done all year round, whereas bees in nature can only manufacture certain periods of the year.”
🥛 Dairy-free brand Califia Farms has unveiled “Complete Kids,” a nutritious dairy-free milk for children. The product is made with a blend of peas, chickpeas, and fava beans. It features 8 grams of protein, alongside Omega-3, calcium, choline, and prebiotics. It’s free from all major allergens, and is said to be “nutritionally comparable” to cow’s milk, without the harmful health impacts that dairy has been linked to. It also contains 50 percent less sugar than traditional fluid milk.
Thanks for reading.
If you’d like your office and/or manufacturing space or business profiled - let me know. It’s always fun to explore and share the different components of the food & beverage industry.
Erik Stiebel
Founder and Vice President
CA DRE License #02080746
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erik@crea-la.com | 𝕏