Homemade French Fries with Ranch Dressing on a Plate, top view.

Lancaster Colony to Acquire Sauces, Dressings Processing Plant in Atlanta, Georgia

Nov. 19, 2024

Facility features about 250,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space and will cost the company approximately $75 million to acquire.

Andy Hanacek

Lancaster Colony Corp., parent company of T. Marzetti Co., which manufactures the Marzetti brand of dressings and dips, will acquire a sauce and dressing processing plant in Atlanta, Ga., from Winland Foods Inc., according to a release.

Lancaster Colony will pay about $75 million for the 300,000-sq.-ft. facility, which includes some 250,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing floorspace. The deal is expected to close in Q1 of the calendar year 2025, according to the release.

“This facility will benefit our core sauce and dressing operations through improved operational efficiency, incremental capacity, and closer proximity to certain core customers while enhancing our manufacturing network from a business continuity standpoint,” said David A. Ciesinski, CEO of Lancaster Colony, in the release. “We evaluated several scenarios to support our continued growth and determined this asset purchase to be the most practical and cost-effective solution for our long-term business needs. We look forward to welcoming the plant employees to the Marzetti team.”

T. Marzetti was named one of Food Processing’s R&D Teams of the Year back in August. In addition to the Marzetti-branded products, Lancaster Colony Corp. also produces New York Bakery garlic breads and Sister Schubert’s dinner rolls. The company also has numerous exclusive license agreements in its portfolio, including Texas Roadhouse steak sauces and dinner rolls, Olive Garden dressings, Chick-fil-A sauces and dressings, and sauces from Buffalo Wild Wings, Arby’s and Subway.

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.