News

Harkness Capital has made an investment in Scottsdale, Arizona-based Southwest Foodservice Excellence, a provider of outsourced food services to K-12 public school districts. No financial terms were disclosed.

PRESS RELEASE

Scottsdale, AZ – Southwest Foodservice Excellence (“SFE” or the “Company”), a leading provider of outsourced foodservices to K-12 public schools, announced that it has received an investment led by Harkness Capital, a private equity firm focused on investments in leading service-oriented companies.

SFE was founded in 2005 by two industry veterans, Don Gala and Luis Benavides. The Company is a leading player in the rapidly growing K-12 outsourced foodservice sector.

SFE serves 80+ million meals annually across 100+ school districts in 11 states. The Company focuses on delivering more nutritious and higher quality food, providing exceptional service, and more menu choices to meet specific needs of K-12 public school districts.

“The Harkness Capital investment provides capital and resources in support of SFE’s mission to provide leading nutritional foodservice to its school district partners and students across the country,” said Mr. Benavides, Co-Founder of SFE. Mr. Gala, Co-Founder added, “The SFE focus will remain on superior customer service to schools and students, and growing operations in new geographies. Harkness Capital is fully supportive of providing added resources to help us with this opportunity.” Harkness Capital is leading a group of investors including Farol Asset Management, Ocean Avenue Capital Partners, and Stonehenge Partners.

About Southwest Foodservice Excellence
Southwest Foodservice Excellence is a leading provider of outsourced foodservices for K- 12 public schools. Founded in 2005 and based in Scottsdale, AZ, the Company is dedicated to providing high quality, nutritious foods to students and school districts and providing the highest quality customer service. SFE serves over 100 school districts in 11 states. For more information, please visit https://www.sfellc.org/.

About Harkness Capital
Harkness Capital Management is a New York-based private equity investment firm focused on investments in service-oriented and niche-manufacturing companies. Founded in 2014, Harkness Capital invests its capital and resources to support the growth of high-quality, lower middle market companies. Harkness Capital is dedicated to long-term value creation and working in partnership with talented managers seeking to grow their businesses. Harkness Capital utilizes its team of operators and investors to help management teams create long-term value. For more information, please visit http://www.harknesscapital.com.