Wyandot Snacks
Connect with
Erik Einwalter
to learn more about this transaction
has acquired a majority stake in
Overview
- Wyandot Snacks (“Wyandot” or the “Company”) is a premier contract manufacturer of high-quality snack foods, cereals, and better-for-you offerings. Founded in 1936 and headquartered in Marion, Ohio, the Company is a long-term trusted partner to many leading and emerging brands and private label customers
- The Company’s state-of-the-art, centrally located facility houses flexible, value-add production capabilities including extruded snacks, tortilla chip, and popcorn production capabilities and large and small format packaging capabilities
- While the Company maintained a long-term track record of value-add in the dynamic and growing snack manufacturing category, recent dynamics including a failed sale process, unsuccessful west coast greenfield expansion, and operational challenges with certain packaging formats had challenged performance and strained the Company financially
- Astara Capital Partners (“Astara”), a newly formed private equity fund, began assessing an opportunity to invest in the Company. Their ability to see opportunities for value creation despite complex operational and financial challenges positioned them uniquely as a potential partner to Wyandot
- Astara hired Cascadia as an advisor on the transaction due to its extensive experience in the food and beverage manufacturing industry and ability to bring thoughtful insights across historical performance assessment, current positioning review, and future value creation plan opportunities
- Cascadia’s diligence and recommendations spanned extensive customer diligence, industry financial and operational benchmarking, public and private market valuation review, comprehensive value creation plan construction, competitive landscape mapping, and M&A opportunity assessment
- The transaction was closed in January 2023