Rich's Makes a Series of Deals

Rich Products Corp. has announced the acquisitions of two food companies—Goglanian Bakeries Inc. and f’real foods LLC—and the launch of a joint venture called Twin Star Bakery with business partner The Stolbun Group.

“The acquisitions of Goglanian Bakeries and f’real foods, and establishment of our Twin Star joint venture, are consistent with our ongoing commitment to shape and reshape our diverse portfolio to keep Rich’s focused on a path of long term growth,” says President/CEO Bill Gisel.

The acquisition of family-owned Goglanian Bakeries will significantly expand Rich’s current pizza business and provide the company with a noted line of par-baked pizza crusts, flatbreads and pitas to complement its existing presence in frozen pizza dough in the foodservice channel. Goglanian also possesses a significant manufacturing network with operations in Santa Ana, CA, Fountain Inn, SC and Rochester, NY, along with a new state-of-the-art facility located outside of Chicago that is expected to open in the first quarter of 2013.

“This acquisition strengthens our competitive position within the pizza category, one of our highest growth priorities for our US-Canada Region," says Executive VP/COO Richard Ferranti. "We are confident that the Goglanian business has the capacity to grow exponentially as it transitions into our organization to leverage our scale, management depth and customer access in the US, Canada and other regions across the world.”

The addition of Orinda, CA-based f’real foods provides Rich’s with a new product line and greater penetration into the growing convenience store segment. Founded in 1995, f’real is a fast-growing company that sells authentic, high-quality milkshakes, smoothies and frozen coffee beverages, along with patented blending equipment, to more than 9,000 convenience store and foodservice locations across the United States and Canada. Because of on f’real’s unique business model and current growth trajectory, it will be managed as a separate subsidiary business.

“The acquisition of f’real provides us with the opportunity to enter into a completely new product category, and also establish additional inroads into the high growth convenience-store segment within Rich’s Foodservice Division," Ferranti says. "We will be working closely with the f’real leadership team to help them leverage our scale, best practices and certain capabilities.  We also will look to create opportunities for f’real to take advantage of our sales channels and customer contacts on a global basis.”

Twin Star Bakery is a new joint venture partnership between Rich’s and The Stolbun Group, led by Sam Stolbun, who previously owned Camelot Desserts. Twin Star recently opened a state-of-the-art desserts manufacturing operation near Houston that produces high quality fully-finished cakes and baked/iced cookies. The Stolbun Group will manage Twin Star’s research & development and production, while Rich’s will oversee product marketing and sales, primarily through its In-Store Bakery Division.

“This joint venture is a wonderful example of collaboration between Rich’s expansive customer and distribution access and The Stolbun Group’s unique manufacturing and product development expertise," Ferranti notes. "The entrepreneurial nature of this business will enable greater manufacturing and product development flexibility."