has been acquired by
Cascadia Capital, an investment bank serving middle market clients globally, today announced it acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Endeavour Capital and portfolio company Oregon Freeze Dry (“OFD”), one of the largest North American freeze-dryers, in its acquisition by Arbor Investments (“Arbor”), a specialized private equity firm that focuses exclusively on investing in food, beverage and related industries.
Founded in 1963, OFD is one of North America’s largest and most technologically advanced freeze-dryer of food, probiotics, enzymes, proteins, specialty ingredients, and lyophilized pharmaceutical inputs. With nearly six decades of institutional knowledge and proprietary lyophilization expertise, OFD manufactures innovative and value-added freeze-dried products for a diversified and high-growth mix of end-markets. This expertise is paired with OFD’s unmatched production scale and capabilities, including 36 freeze-drying chambers spread across four best-in-class bicoastal facilities, with nearly 550 employees. A new state-of-the-art West Coast facility is also under construction (scheduled to open in mid-2022), which will further enhance the Company’s lyophilized pharmaceutical capabilities.
With a storied history that includes working with the U.S. Department of Defense to provide meals to troops and supporting NASA space missions (including products taken on every Apollo mission to the Moon), Oregon Freeze Dry is a pioneer in freeze-drying food applications that have superior flavor, long shelf-life and convenient preparation. From producing meals for the U.S. military to making products for on-the-go consumers and emergency preparedness under its own retail brand, Mountain House®, OFD has perfected the art and science of manufacturing superior tasting products that are nutrient-preserving while being clean-label and preservative-free. The Company’s Mountain House® brand, with omnichannel distribution across mass, club, eCommerce and specialty retail, is the unrivaled #1 freeze-dried brand in the adventure and outdoor meal category.
Leveraging the Company’s institutional “know-how” in technical, high-value added freeze-drying, OFD also utilizes its proprietary LyoLock™ process to produce customized, critical inputs for multinational customers in the nutritional supplements, ingredients and pharmaceutical industries. OFD brings an innovative approach to designing and commercializing successful product concepts and is a key contract manufacturing partner to an enviable list of sophisticated customers.
CEO Joe Folds and other senior leadership will continue to lead OFD from their headquarters in Albany, Oregon.
“For decades, Oregon Freeze Dry has set the standard of excellence in meals for consumers and the U.S. military, as well as serving as a trusted partner for our contract manufacturing customers,” said Folds. “Our ambition has always been to grow – across both new products and new capabilities – and we are excited to be partnering with Arbor, who completely share our appetite and vision for continued ambitious growth.”
“Oregon Freeze Dry is such a unique business to represent, and this enabled us to really highlight their differentiated capabilities and find the right buyer” said Erik Einwalter, Managing Director at Cascadia Capital “Freeze drying is enjoying significant tailwinds as the technological application is benefitting from trends across consumer categories.”
The acquisition represents another successful transaction for Cascadia in the food, beverage, and agribusiness sector; putting the FB&A team at Cascadia on pace to close 18 transactions this year.
For more information about this transaction, please contact:
Erik Einwalter
Managing Director
eeinwalter@cascadiacapital.com
(206) 436-2538
George Sent
Managing Director
gsent@cascadiacapital.com
(206) 436-2511
Or other senior members of the Food, Beverage & Agribusiness team at Cascadia:
Michael Butler
Chairman & CEO
mbutler@cascadiacapital.com
(206) 436-2530
Bryan Jaffe
Managing Director
bjaffe@cascadiacapital.com
(206) 436-2534
Scott Porter
Managing Director
sporter@cascadiacapital.com
(206) 436-2528