April’s Lunch Box 🧰
Yes, I’m a little late with April’s Lunch Box, but I come bearing a packed newsletter.
Let’s go!
REAL ESTATE HIGHLIGHTS
Renderings of Palermo Villa’s planned production plant in West Milwaukee.
Frozen pizza manufacturer Palermo Villa, Inc. is planning to build a 200,000-square-foot production plant in West Milwaukee. The plant, which will be used for frozen pizza production, will be located approximately three miles from the company’s headquarters and will add 50 employees to the company’s workforce. (source: Meat+Poultry)
Cottage cheese and sour cream maker Daisy Brand LLC is investing $626.5 million toward the construction of a 750,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Boone, Iowa. Growing demand for its products prompted Daisy to build the facility, which will create approximately 106 new jobs with anticipation to grow up to 255 jobs, according to the company. Daisy Brand, headquartered in Dallas, is a fifth-generation family-owned company with operations in Arizona, Ohio and Texas. In 2016, the company opened its third production facility in Wooster, Ohio. A few years later the company expanded the Wooster plant by 86,000 square feet. (source: FoodBusinessNews)
fairlife and The Coca‑Cola Company have ceremonially broken ground on a new state-of-the-art fairlife production facility in the Town of Webster, New York. The facility is anticipated to be operational in Q4 2025, spanning 745,000 square feet, and will stand on a lot of approximately 110 acres. The facility will take in five to six million pounds of milk per day from local dairy farmers, which will help support ongoing local dairy farm jobs. The facility represents a $650 million investment into Monroe County and is expected to generate approximately 250 jobs in the greater Webster, New York, area. (source: Cowsmopolitan)
Marson Foods LLC, a premier manufacturer of waffle products for K-12 and food service, officially opened its new $35 million, 147,000-square-foot baking facility at 1590 Tradeport Drive, Hazelwood, Missouri. The modern distribution facility includes 12,000 square feet of fully automated freezer capacity, end-to-end research and development capabilities, automated production lines to increase sales capacity, and space for five additional production lines. The company is currently producing 420 waffles per minute, roughly 25,000 per hour, with a capacity of 150 million waffles a year. (source: Food Manufacturing)
Uncle Matt’s Organic, a producer of organic beverages, has opened a new 75,000-square-foot manufacturing plant just west of Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. The facility will reportedly take charge of 100% of Uncle Matt’s chilled juice production. Commenting on the move, Uncle Matt’s Organic founder and chief executive officer Matt McLean said: “Having doubled in size since acquiring the brand back in 2020, this move reflects Uncle Matt’s Organic commitment to being consistently great with every bottle produced. Centralizing production allows us to streamline operations, reduce costs, and improve quality.” (source: FoodBusinessNews)
Ardent Mills, a leading flour milling and ingredient company, has grown the reach of its Ardent Mills Innovation Center (AMIC) with a fourth location in Pullman, WA. The new state-of-the-art facility will serve as an analytical R&D lab and experimental mill focused on alternative grains. Ardent Mills’ investment in the Pullman AMIC furthers the company’s commitment to purposeful innovation that expands its Emerging Nutrition offerings. At this location, the company is using technology to uncover solutions for pulses and alternative grains, particularly chickpeas. Ardent Mills’ R&D team looks to develop new varieties of specific crops through plant breeding to achieve nutritional and functional characteristics for customers. (source: Commercial Baking)
SPACE AVAILABLE
I don’t often feature real estate opportunities, but thought this might be of interest to some of you…
For Sale or Lease: 17760 Rowland Street, Rowland Heights, CA 91748
Formerly occupied by Sun Hing Foods Co., renovation was recently completed on this 46,700 square foot building.
Reply to this email if you’d like more details.
Food manufacturing opportunity.
NOTABLE AGREEMENTS, FUNDINGS & ACQUISITIONS
Denver, Colorado-based The Simply Good Foods Co. is acquiring Only What You Need (OWYN), a manufacturer of plant-based, ready-to-drink protein shakes, for $280 million. Under the terms of the agreement, the $280 million purchase price will be paid in cash and represents a purchase price multiple of approximately 2.3x3 estimated net sales and 13.3x2 estimated Adjusted EBITDA,3 including run-rate synergies. Simply Good Foods intends to finance the transaction by using approximately $50 million of cash on its balance sheet as well as committed financing from Barclays and Deutsche Bank. Projected trailing twelve-month Net Debt to Adjusted EBITDA3 leverage is expected to be about 1.5x, or less, at closing (source: thesimplygoodfoodscompany.com)
Plant-based protein bar, protein beverages, and protein powder company Aloha is joining SemCap Food & Nutrition’s portfolio after SemCap invested $68 million to place a “significant minority stake” in the company. The investment of secondary capital also will buy out early angel investors, according to the company. With Aloha being an employee owned and operated company, employees and management will still be able to retain a significant stake in the company as well as maintain Aloha’s status as an independently operated entity. (source: FoodBusinessNews)
Utz Brands is selling two of its manufacturing plants to local competitor Our Home. Popchips maker Our Home will acquire Utz’s facilities in Berlin, Pennsylvania, and Fitchburg, Massachusetts, alongside “certain related assets,” according to a statement from Utz. The total transaction amounts to $18.5 million and is expected to be complete by 22 April. The deal marks Our Home’s second acquisition of assets from Utz this year. In January, the company bought three Utz manufacturing plants and its two brands, Good Health and RW Garcia, for $182.5 million. (source: Just Food)
Microsoft and The Coca-Cola Company announced a five-year strategic partnership to align Coca-Cola's core technology strategy systemwide, enable the adoption of leading-edge technology, and foster innovation and productivity globally. As part of the partnership, Coca-Cola has committed $1.1 billion to the Microsoft Cloud and its generative AI capabilities. The collaboration underscores Coca-Cola's ongoing technology transformation, underpinned by the Microsoft Cloud as its globally preferred and strategic cloud and AI platform. (source:
WHAT I’M CONSUMING (AND ENJOYING!)
Walmart’s new premium grocery label.
✨ Fast Company explores why Walmart is launching a premium grocery label with the branding to match (move over Target!). One interesting takeaway: One 2018 study by Pregis and the University of Wisconsin found that the difference between premium and economy packaging changed the retail price respondents expected to pay for a product by 45%.
🍽 Here’s a carousel from Food Business News of recently introduced new food and beverage product lines. I'm not sure if I’ll be eating or drinking many of these, but the packaging looks good!
An AI-created coffee blend.
☕️ AI is creating new coffee blends. The blend—an AI-picked mixture of four types of beans dominated by Brazil's velvety Fazenda Pinhal—is the result of a joint project by Kaffa, Finland's third-biggest coffee roastery, and local AI consultancy Elev.
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
(c) +1 424.241.4795
erik@crea-la.com | 𝕏
P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you with your real estate.
A new home for your growing business. The good news - you’re growing! The bad news - you need to move and you don’t know the market. I can help.
Sublease your space. You’ve outgrown your space and need to move but don’t want to pay two rents? I got you.
Time to renew your lease? Want to make sure you’re getting a fair deal from your Landlord? In my experience, you can never be too certain. (BTW, I recommend starting the lease renewal process 12 months out at a minimum.)