Staffing

Take-and-bake pizza brand acquisition creates private label pizza company

Photo: iStock.

December 8, 2020

Brynwood Partners VIII has acquired take-and-bake pizza business, Aryzta North America, and a formed a portfolio company, called Great Kitchens Food Company Inc.

The private label take-and-bake pizza venture sells to U.S. foodservice, mass retailers, clubs and grocery stores, a news release said.

Based in Romeoville, Illinois, GKF will continue operation of a 165,000-square-foot crust-making facility in Chicago Heights and a 155,000-square-foot topping plant in Romeoville. The company is led by former Aryzta staffer, Admir Basic, who was named Great Kitchens' president and chief commercial officer. Great Kitchens named Bill Steckel as CFO.

"We are thrilled to announce the creation of Great Kitchens," Henk Hartong III, Brynwood Partners chairman and CEO, said in the release. "We are excited to return to the private-label pizza space with this new investment.

"Our prior investment in the private label frozen pizza space with Richelieu Foods Inc. was very successful and we are confident in the prospects for Great Kitchens. We look forward to bringing a significant level of investment in new products and recipe innovations to our retail partners through our best-in-class facilities."

With the acquisition, the release said that Brynwood Partners has acquired 56 brands from 21 corporate sellers. The company was represented by Winston & Strawn LLP on legal matters and did not have investment banking representation. BMO Capital Markets served as the investment adviser to Aryzta.

Brynwood Partners is a private equity firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut, which makes control investments in North American-based lower- middle market companies. The firm targets non-core brands or companies operating exclusively in the consumer sector and manages more than $1 billion of private equity capital for its limited partners.