Brooklyn Brands, a private-label bakery founded in 2015, has been sold by Astor Group to Japanese baking company Taguchi & Co., according to a Forbes report. The deal was “for eight figures,” according to the news report, and will offer a wider global presence for both parties.
Brooklyn Brands produces bakery products for 10,000 retailers, including Kroger, Albertsons, Whole Foods, Publix, Stop & Shop, Costco and Wegmans, and owns the Lilly’s Baking Co. baked goods brand.
Taguchi sells Japanese desserts to Asian retailers in the U.S. market, and the Brooklyn Brands acquisition offers a potential wider audience for its products. Brooklyn Brands will be able to tap into investments and the R&D of the Japanese company to innovate its product offerings.
Brooklyn Brands founders Seth Zalkin and Mickey Klein of Astor Group, as well as COO John Gibson and the Brooklyn leadership team, will work with Taguchi to oversee Brooklyn’s operations from New York, according to the Forbes report.
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.