Deans Dip And Maries Dressing 64b98f5de745a

Marie’s Salad Dressings, Dean’s Dips To Join Brynwood Partners Portfolio

July 20, 2023

Marie’s and Dean’s Dip business will be run by newly formed West Madison Foods and includes Thornton, Ill., processing facility.

Andy Hanacek

West Madison Foods, a newly formed portfolio company of Brynwood Partners IX L.P., will acquire the Marie’s salad dressing brand and the Dean’s Dip business from Ventura Foods LLC. Included in the deal will be the Thornton, Ill., processing plant where both products are manufactured, a release from Brynwood stated.

West Madison Foods will be headquartered in Chicago, with the Thornton facility supporting the business. That plant employs approximately 84 full-time employees, and the announcement stated that a small group of Marie’s and Dean’s brand employees may also transition to West Madison Foods employment in the deal.

Marie’s produces premium salad dressings, dips and spreads, and the Dean’s Dip business produces dips and spreads. The transaction represents the third in the past seven months by Brynwood, with the company having acquired Birch Benders in December 2022 and Uno Foods in March 2023.

Brynwood Partners’ portfolio includes Harvest Hill Beverage Co., Carolina Beverage Group, Hometown Food Co., Buitoni Food Co. and Great Kitchens Food Co. — with 17 facilities, approximately 4,700 employees and more than $2.6 billion in annual sales.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

About the Author

Andy Hanacek | Senior Editor

Andy Hanacek has covered meat, poultry, bakery and snack foods as a B2B editor for nearly 20 years, and has toured hundreds of processing plants and food companies, sharing stories of innovation and technological advancement throughout the food supply chain. In 2018, he won a Folio:Eddie Award for his unique "From the Editor's Desk" video blogs, and he has brought home additional awards from Folio and ASBPE over the years. In addition, Hanacek led the Meat Industry Hall of Fame for several years and was vice president of communications for We R Food Safety, a food safety software and consulting company.