Stir Foods Acquires Lancaster Fine Foods
Stir Foods and Lancaster Fine Foods join forces to establish broader coast-to-coast footprint
Orange, CA, March 1, 2021 – Wind Point Partners and portfolio company Stir Foods (“Stir” or the “Company”), a leading custom manufacturer of soups, sauces, dressings, and fresh salsas for retail, industrial, and foodservice customers, are pleased to announce that Stir has acquired Lancaster Fine Foods, Inc. (“Lancaster”), a private label and contract manufacturer of custom sauces, dressings, and condiments for retail, industrial and foodservice customers. Lancaster operates a 100,000 square foot Safe Quality Food (“SQF”) manufacturing facility in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with the ability to expand into 200,000 square feet of total space.
The combination of Stir and Lancaster further expands Stir’s footprint on the East Coast with locations in Toronto, Canada, and now Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This combination solidifies Stir as a North American leader in custom sauces and dressings with extensive packaging capabilities and a deep bench of culinary talent. The resulting coast-to-coast manufacturing capability enhances Stir’s ability to support continued growth with existing and new customers. In addition, both companies share a similar culture centered on delivering the highest quality custom solutions for customers through new and innovative products.
Milt Liu, CEO of Stir, expressed, “I am excited to welcome the Lancaster team to Stir. The cultures and culinary focus of our two companies are very similar, making this a natural partnership. Lancaster brings a great customer base, team and operation to our platform. In addition, Lancaster, combined with our Toronto facility, allows us to efficiently service the entire East Coast market. Furthermore, the facility is well-situated for expansion and future growth. Our plan is to invest in Lancaster and leverage our combined capabilities and customer bases to grow the Lancaster facility into one of our ‘flagship’ locations.”
Mike Thompson, Lancaster’s CEO and one of its founders, noted, “Our team is excited to partner with Milt and the Stir team. There is a strong cultural fit and together, we believe we can unlock even stronger growth at Lancaster and Stir. Our operations are also highly complementary in terms of capabilities that we can bring to our combined customer bases, and with the financial backing of Wind Point, we plan to pursue continued investment in new capabilities to drive growth at the Lancaster facility.”
Wind Point Partners acquired Stir in December of 2017 in partnership with Milt Liu, a more than 20-year veteran of the food industry. Lancaster represents the fourth add-on acquisition for Stir, following the acquisitions of Celtrade Canada in February 2020, Van Law Food Products in March 2019 and Sabra’s salsa business unit in September 2018. In cooperation with Milt and the management of Stir and Lancaster, Wind Point will continue growing the Stir platform through a combination of organic growth and innovation, as well as additional complementary acquisitions like Lancaster.
Joe Lawler, Managing Director with Wind Point Partners, stated, “The acquisition of Lancaster is an important step in our value creation plan to enhance Stir’s ability to serve customers across the U.S. and in Canada. Expanding our capabilities to the East Coast has been a key priority, and the combination adds capacity that will enable us to continue executing against our growth plan.”
Reed Smith served as legal counsel to Stir. Weir & Partners served as legal counsel to Lancaster.