News

Kainos Capital said Sept. 11 that it sold portfolio company Florida Food Products to MidOcean Partners. Financial terms weren’t announced. Florida Foods, of Eustis, Florida, makes and formulates vegetable and fruit based ingredients that provide clean label solutions to the food, beverage, and pet nutrition industries. Houlihan Lokey provided financial advice to Florida Food Products and Winston & Strawn served as legal adviser.

PRESS RELEASE

DALLAS, Sept. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Kainos Capital (“Kainos”), a leading food and consumer-focused private equity firm, today announced the sale of its portfolio company Florida Food Products to an affiliate of MidOcean Partners.
Headquartered in Eustis, Florida, Florida Food is a formulator and manufacturer of vegetable and fruit based ingredients providing innovative clean label solutions to the food, beverage, and pet nutrition industries.  The company was founded by the Brown family and has been providing healthy, natural and on-trend ingredients for over 60 years.
Andrew Rosen, Managing Partner of Kainos, said, “Our interest in Florida Food was driven by our belief in the importance of functional ingredients that provide demonstrable health benefits and the overall movement by consumers toward clean label products.  This thesis also led to other investments by our firm in companies such as Milk Specialties Global, InterHealth Nutraceuticals and Kettle Cuisine. We are pleased by our successful partnership with the Brown family and believe that Florida Food is positioned for a very exciting future.”
Kevin Elliott, a Partner at Kainos, added, “We were very fortunate to be selected by the Browns to be the stewards of this great business that their family built.  Together we recruited a very talented team led by Jim Holdreith, and invested significant resources in innovation and manufacturing capacity so that Florida Food could capture the next phase of growth.”
Jim Holdreith, CEO of Florida Food, continued, “Our collaboration with Kainos has been instrumental in our ability to capitalize on the growth opportunities in our key markets. The Kainos team helped us to recruit a world-class team, invested heavily in our operating facility and set us up for continued success.”
“Choosing to partner with Kainos in 2016 was a great choice,” remarked Jerry Brown. “They did everything they said they would do when we first met and we’re thrilled that they helped us craft and achieve our vision for Florida Food.”
Houlihan Lokey served as financial advisor to Florida Food Products and Winston & Strawn served as legal advisor.
About Kainos Capital
Kainos Capital is a middle market private equity firm with an exclusive focus on the food and consumer sector. The Kainos team has extensive investment and operating experience in the industry, having invested more than $2 billion of equity in more than 60 transactions with a total transaction value of more than $10 billion. The firm’s strategy is to build a diversified portfolio of growing and strategically relevant food and consumer businesses that trade buyers would like to acquire. For more information, visit www.kainoscapital.com.