Arbor Gobbles up Food Distributor
Buyouts Magazine
With an eye towards introducing new product lines, Arbor Investments has completed the acquisition of fast-growing Trudeau Distributing Co., a specialty retail food manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Burnsville, Minn.
Arbor Investments, a Chicago-based, lower-mid-market buyout shop that invests exclusively in the food and beverage sector, closed the deal on July 16 using a combination of cash and senior bank debt. Kimberly Harrod, a vice president at Arbor Investments, declined to discuss financial details, but the firm typically buys companies generating annual EBITDA of $5 million to $15 million. The management team invested in the deal and will retain a 20 percent stake.
Other would-be buyers were lurking, but Harrod said her firm’s lengthy courtship of company management, combined with a focus on the food industry, sealed the deal.
Trudeau Distributing, which opened a new manufacturing facility in May, makes ready-to-cook meat, poultry and seafood products, including kabobs and stuffed chicken breasts for deli cases. It also produces bakery goods and barbeque sauces that it distributes to corporate and independent grocers throughout the upper Midwest. It is best known for its Rudolph’s Bar-b-que, Wisconsin Door County and Complete Recipe brands, and the buyout shop aims to develop more offerings. The company’s annual sales have more then doubled in the last five years, to more than $50 million last year, and sales are on track to reach $65 million in 2007.
Arbor Investments paid for Trudeau out of its $171 million second fund, Arbor Investments II, LP, which closed earlier this year and is approximately 25 percent invested.
The firm’s other portfolio companies include Great Kitchens Inc., an Illinois-based manufacturer of pizza and appetizers; National Deli LLC, a Miami company that offers a full line of beef-based deli meats.