Hearthside Food Solutions, a Downers Grove, Illinois-based contract manufacturer, has completed the purchase of Greencore US. Formerly an American unit of Greencore Group plc, a Dublin, Ireland-headquartered convenience foods specialist, it operates from 13 locations in the United States with a workforce of 3,000 people. Revenues in 2017 topped $1.4 billion.
This acquisition, which reportedly settled for about $1 billion, adds frozen breakfast foods, refrigerated snack and salad kits, sandwiches and entrees to the portfolio of Hearthside, which ranks as a leader in the production of nutritional bars, snack bars, cookies, crackers, and other snack foods.
Greencore US customers include 7-Eleven convenience stores and Starbucks. It entered the frozen breakfast sandwich sector in earnest during 2016 with the purchase of Geneva, Illinois-headquartered Peacock Foods for $747.5 million.
Heathside’s acquisition of Greencore US marks a significant step in its further growth and development as a major contract manufacturer, expanding the company’s production network to 38 locations (which includes three units in Europe), 10,000 employees and $3 billion in annual revenue.
“We continue to position Hearthside as a full-service contract manufacturing provider in key, high-growth categories, enabling our customers to maximize their go-to-market strategies, leverage innovation, increase speed-to-market and optimize efficiencies,” said Rich Scalise, chairman and chief executive officer.
