Olde Thompson acquires Gel Spice

  • 22 July 2020
  • M&A
Olde Thompson is a portfolio company of Kainos Capital, a private equity firm focused exclusively on the food and consumer industry

Olde Thompson, a California-based provider of private label and branded spices and seasonings, announced today that it has acquired Gel Spice, a family-owned importer and manufacturer of spices, seasoning, and bakery ingredients to both the retail and foodservice channels. Gel Spice is based in New Jersey.

Olde Thompson is a portfolio company of Kainos Capital, a private equity firm focused exclusively on the food and consumer industry.

The investor claims the transaction positions Olde Thompson as a leader in the spice category with a differentiated bi-coastal manufacturing footprint, unlocking additional channels and expanding the company’s product offering into pouches, extracts and single-serve seasonings for meal kits and other applications.

Andrew Rosen, managing partner of Kainos Capital, said: “When Kainos acquired Olde Thompson in 2018, we embarked on a strategy to expand the company from a single facility spice business focused on private label to a category leader capable of offering a broader portfolio of product formats to an increasingly global customer base.”

Rosen continued: “By adding Gel, Olde Thompson will have not only a bi-coastal operation but also significantly scaled production and distribution capabilities with material capacity to bring on new business.”

For Rosen, the transaction also adds a strong salesforce, allowing Olde Thompson to serve additional customers in new channels. “Kainos will continue to support additional acquisition opportunities to invest behind Olde Thompson’s growth strategy in the future,” Rosen concluded.

Food investor Kainos Capital

Kainos Capital specialises in investing in family and founder-owned businesses where it can be a value-added partner and instil a culture of operational excellence through its sales development, manufacturing, supply chain and administrative expertise.

Kainos Capital has invested over $2 billion of equity in 73 investments with a total value of more than $10 billion.

As part of the transaction, David Sugarman, chief executive of Gel, has become co-chief executive of Olde Thompson alongside existing chief executive Jeff Shumway.