B&G Foods Divests Don Pepino, Sclafani Businesses
B&G Foods Inc. has sold the Don Pepino and Sclafani brands to Violet Foods LLC, a newly formed portfolio company owned by Amphora Equity Partners LLC, according to a release. Included in the sale of the pizza, spaghetti sauce, crushed tomato, tomato puree and whole peeled tomato brands is the manufacturing facility that produces them in Williamstown, N.J.
Casey Keller, president and chief executive officer of B&G, called the divesting of the brands “consistent with our efforts to reshape our portfolio, focus on our core brands and reduce long-term debt.”
With that said, B&G expects to repay long-term debt using the net proceeds of the sale. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The Sclafani business began as an importer of Italian products in 1900 (though the Sclafani family had begun to run a grocery store in New York in the late 1800s). The Don Pepino brand was created by the Sclafani family in 1950, according to the B&G web site. Both Don Pepino pizza and pasta sauces and Sclafani canned tomatoes promote the fact that they’re made from New Jersey-grown tomatoes.
