Gehl Foods Acquires California Natural Products
Acquisition of leading West Coast-based Tetra Pak food and beverage packager positions Gehl for further value creation
Chicago, IL, January 29, 2018 – Wind Point Partners and portfolio company GF Assets Holdings Corporation (“GF Assets”), the parent company of Gehl Foods, LLC (“Gehl”), a market-leading producer of dairy-based, shelf-stable beverages, cheese sauces and other products, are pleased to announce the acquisition of California Natural Products (“CNP”). CNP, headquartered in Lathrop, California, is an aseptic packager of dairy-based and dairy alternative beverages, soups, broths, teas, nutritional drinks, and wine and spirits, all in Tetra Pak cartons. CNP also manufactures specialty rice and soy-based ingredients for blue-chip consumer food brands.
The combination of Gehl and CNP creates a leading provider of low-acid aseptic food and beverage products, offering a breadth of packaging formats and geographic reach. With its manufacturing facility in Germantown, Wisconsin, Gehl’s aseptic packaging capabilities include bag-in-box, pouch, #10 can, HDPE and PET single-serve bottles. Through its West Coast operation, CNP offers filling capabilities across eight unique carton sizes, in addition to ingredient development and manufacturing. CNP also adds a high-quality group of long-term customer relationships to the Gehl family and provides access to several growing end markets.
David Stott, Managing Director with Wind Point Partners, stated, “CNP represents an ideal fit with Gehl and an excellent next step toward building out our platform in the growing segments of shelf-stable food and beverage. Our customers are looking for exceptional service across a breadth of packaging formats, coupled with product formulation and supply chain expertise. Together these businesses are poised to deliver on that proposition.”
“I’m very excited to lead this expansion at Gehl Foods,” commented Eric Beringause, Chief Executive Officer of Gehl Foods. “At Gehl, we inherited an exceptional company with an outstanding track record. Over the past three years, we’ve been able to build on that foundation and look forward to the many opportunities that will come from adding CNP to the organization.”