Sun Capital Partners' affiliate has closed the sale of Creekstone Farms Premium Beef to an unnamed supplier of premium USDA-certified beef and pork products.
Terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.
The choice of food lovers across the world, Creekstone Farms supplies many of the nation’s top grocers and restaurants with a variety of high-quality meats, including Black Angus beef and antibiotic-free Duroc Pork. The Company also exports its products across Europe, Latin America, and Asia.
“We’re proud of our success building Creekstone Farms into a leading international provider of top-grade meats,” said Marc Leder, Co-CEO of Sun Capital. “Throughout the course of this investment, the Sun Capital team partnered with management to drive strategic initiatives that enabled Creekstone Farms to thrive despite broader industry challenges. We are looking forward to seeing the business continue to prosper under its new ownership.”
The Sun Capital affiliate first acquired Arkansas City, Kansas-based Creekstone Farms in February, 2005, and undertook a range of improvements to transform the business during its ownership period.
These included enhancing the management team with highly-experienced industry veterans, growing the Company’s line of all natural products from less than 5 percent of production at acquisition to roughly 22 percent at present, and expanding international business more than 800 percent to approximately 20 percent of total sales.
“We followed a comprehensive strategy for improving Creekstone Farms,” said Jordan Wadsworth, Principal at Sun Capital. “By bringing in a best-in-industry leadership team and expanding our product offerings in line with trends in consumer demand, we were able to improve Creekstone Farms’ business fundamentals and turn a good company into a great one.”
Sun Capital has strong experience in food businesses through current and recent affiliated portfolio companies including Flavor 1st, a leading grower, packager and distributor of branded and private-label fresh produce, and Fresh-Pak, which supplies a range of high-quality fresh sandwich fillings, pate, dips and cooked egg products into the UK retail, foodservice and food manufacturing markets.
