Littlejohn & Co, a private investment firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut, is to sell CTI Foods, a provider of custom food solutions to major chain restaurants in North America.
The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013.
Littlejohn acquired CTI Foods in 2010 and shortly thereafter appointed Robert (Bobby) Horowitz as the new chief executive of the business. Littlejohn, together with the company’s management team, expanded the company into a national provider of custom, value-added food products. During Littlejohn’s ownership, CTI built a new state-of-the-art soup plant and R&D facility, completed two acquisitions and developed several major new accounts that diversified its customer base.
"This successful transaction is the culmination of our collaboration with a management team that flawlessly executed on a number of strategic growth initiatives. The result is a much stronger company in terms of its customer base, product offerings, profitability, and safety," says Steven G Raich, a managing director at Littlejohn.
Horowitz says: "Littlejohn was instrumental in helping us capitalise on a number of opportunities to organically grow the business, as well as complete strategic acquisitions to build for the future. We look forward to working with our new partners to build on these and other initiatives to continue the company’s growth."
Morgan Stanley acted as financial adviser to CTI Foods in connection with the transaction.
