The parent company of King’s Hawaiian and Grillo’s Pickles, Irresistible Foods Group Inc. (IFG), has formed a strategic partnership with gourmet brownie company, The Killer Brownie Co., according to a release.
The deal looks to accelerate future growth in the Killer Brownie brand, the companies noted. Killer Brownie was founded in 1988 by Norman Mayne, CEO of Dorothy Lane Market, and has become known for its indulgent product flavors and textures over the years.
Mayne explained that it was not in the company’s nature to take on partners, that “it would have to be with a very special family-owned business who would share the same values that we have at Killer Brownie and Dorothy Lane Market.” The Taira family and IFG president John Linehan fit that mold, and shared that the families had been talking about and planning the partnership for several years. IFG was originally founded in 1950 in Hilo, Hawaii, as a small bakery — but today owns the King’s Hawaiian, Grillo’s Pickles, Shaka Tea, IFG Restaurant Group and Innovation Bakers businesses.
Cody Peak Advisors and the Baird Business Owner Solutions group assisted Killer Brownie and IFG with completion of the partnership.
