An iconic brand with a 160-year history has found another new owner. Borden Dairy Co. has been acquired by Acon Investments, LLC for an undisclosed price. The storied brand has been traded several times this century.
Borden, based in Dallas, still operates 13 facilities in the Midwest, southern and southeastern regions of the U.S. Our 2016 Top 100© list had sales figured at $2.3 billion.
Acon Investments is a smaller, Washington, D.C.-based international private equity investment firm that operates in the U.S. and Latin America.
Borden dates back to 1857 and its founder Gail Borden, called by some the “Father of the Modern Dairy Industry” and inventor of condensed milk. Mascot Elsie the cow debuted at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. In the go-go 1980s, when diversification was all the rage, Borden acquired businesses in glue, wallpaper and chemicals.
The brand has been traded to several dairy companies since, recently Mexico's Lala Dairy, which renamed its American operations after the acquired brand name in 2011. In 2013, Borden was spun off into a private company called Laguna Dairy SA de CV. Following the equity recapitalization, Laguna Dairy remains a substantial equity holder in Borden.
“We have been searching for the right investor and believe in Acon we have found a capital partner that will maximize the potential of Borden,” said Steve Gorman, general manager of Laguna Dairy.
