Wind Point Selling Santa Maria

Wind Point Partners announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell portfolio company Santa Maria Foods, Canada’s leading producer of Italian-style deli meats and a provider of imported Italian specialty foods, to Sofina Foods. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close after required regulatory approvals are received.

Wind Point acquired Santa Maria in January 2007 in partnership with Fred Jaques, a food industry veteran. Prior to joining Santa Maria as CEO, Fred most recently was President of Dare Foods, a private, family-owned food manufacturing company. Prior to Dare Foods, Fred was President of Interbrew/Labatt North America and previously spent 13 years at the Kellogg Company, where he held several senior positions including President, Kellogg Canada and General Manager-Cereal, Kellogg USA.

Fred Jaques commented, “During our five years of ownership, we created significant value at Santa Maria by launching over 25 new products, investing $16 million in capacity expansion and operational improvements and strengthening a world-class sales and marketing team. We have been able to drive strong revenue growth over the period, through aggressive innovation and our continued focus on premium, specialty Italian deli and grocery brands.”

Mark Burgett, a managing director at Wind Point, said, “We have had a great partnership with Fred and the entire Santa Maria team during our ownership. They did an outstanding job enhancing Santa Maria’s product portfolio and expanding distribution. Our success at Santa Maria is an excellent example of Wind Point’s strategy of working with a top caliber team to transform a middle market business.”

Santa Maria will be the second exit for Wind Point since the beginning of 2012, with the other being the sale of Citadel Plastics in February 2012.  

DLA Piper LLP (US) and Aird & Berlis LLP acted as legal advisors to Wind Point Partners and Santa Maria Foods on the transaction.