Hearthside Food Solutions today (Oct. 15) announced an agreement to acquire Greencore USA, a $1.4 billion sales maker of refrigerated sandwiches, entrees, and salad kits. The seller is Greencore Group Plc, an Ireland-based public company. Greencore USA, which also is big in contract packaging, operates 13 locations across North America with 3,500 employees.
Prior to being purchased by Ireland’s Greencore Group, Greencore USA was known as Peacock Foods and was owned by Charlesbank from 2010-2016. The equity for this transaction will be provided by Charlesbank and Partners Group. Hearthside itself was acquired in May 2018 by Charlesbank Capital Partners and Partners Group on behalf of their clients.
“The Greencore USA acquisition will expand Hearthside’s position in high-growth categories and broaden capabilities for existing and new customers, while further scaling operations,” said Ryan Carroll, managing director at Charlesbank. “We are excited about the considerable synergies in culture, fundamental strategy, and operating principles.”
If our math is correct, this should double Hearthside’s sales to about $2.8 billion. The Greencore USA acquisition will expand the Hearthside network to 38 production facilities in the U.S. and Europe.
