Slash and Burn Sun Capital Extends Reach in Produce, Coffee, Restaurants
Private equity fund Sun Capital Partners on June 24 acquired Sunrise Growers-Frozsun Foods, the largest US producer of frozen strawberries and a leading distributor of fresh strawberries and other produce.
Sunrise produces, distributes and sells under its own brands as well as through retail and foodservice private labels, producing 130 million pounds of frozen strawberries and other processed fruit products and distributing over 7 million trays of fresh strawberries annually.
In 2006 Sun Capital together with pe fund EG Capital Group, picked up five of Kraft's Canadian brands and manufacturing sites, now operated as CanGro Foods. CanGro immediately began selling off the brands and closing sites. In two years of private equity ownership, over half of the former union jobs at Kraft were eliminated. Outsourcing the supply of fruit for canning has also had a catastrophic impact on rural and agricultural income.
Earlier this year, Sun Capital acquired Canadian-based Timothy's World Coffee's parent company. Timothy's directly owns or franchises 166 coffeehouses and retail units, of which 77 are in Canada and 50 in the US. Timothy's also distributes single serve coffees and teas, and in September 2007 teamed up with Canadian Monogram Food Solutions Emeril's K-Cups line of high-end single-serve coffees. In April 2008, Timothy's signed a deal with Six Continents Hotels to supply these coffees to the parent company's Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo and Intercontinental brands. The deal was described by Timothy's head Leslie Chase as "Elevating the in-room coffee experience to an unprecedented level of ease, sophistication and luxury. Making the in-room experience on par with the other luxury appointments Six Continent's clientele have come to expect."
Sun Capital owns wholly or in part restaurant companies with over 2,200 locations and USD 3.4 billion in aggregate revenues, including Boston Market Corp., Bruegger's Enterprises, Fazoli's Restaurants, Friendly Ice Cream Corp., Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp., Real Mex Restaurants, Restaurants Unlimited and Souper Salad. In January 2008 it completed the USD 80 million acquisition of the 73-unit Smokey Bones chain from parent group Darden Restaurants, which had closed 53 units prior to the sale.