Butterfly to Acquire Milk Specialties Global
Credit: Milk Specialties Global
Butterfly, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm specializing in the food sector, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Milk Specialties Global, a leader in human and animal nutrition, from affiliates of American Securities LLC.
Founded in 1949 and based in Eden Prairie, Minn., Milk Specialties is an industry-leading, vertically integrated ingredient manufacturer focused on the processing of raw dairy inputs, such as milk and liquid whey, into value-added functional ingredients for a variety of growing nutrition end markets.
The company’s Human Nutrition segment is a leading performance nutrition manufacturer that produces high-quality dairy protein ingredients and products designed to optimize health and nutrition. Today, Milk Specialties’ Human Nutrition segment is the largest producer of whey protein isolate in the world. The company’s Animal Nutrition segment is a leading provider of science-based animal nutrition products for the dairy industry.
Milk Specialties operates 12 state-of-the-art facilities strategically positioned across the United States that allow the company to deliver high-quality, specialized ingredients and exceptional service to customers around the globe. It has been led for over 14 years by CEO and industry veteran David Lenzmeier, who will continue to lead the business going forward.
Milk Specialties is Butterfly’s latest investment within its “seed to fork” strategy spanning agriculture and aquaculture, food and beverage products, food distribution, and foodservice. Butterfly brings specialized expertise in performance nutrition as a result of its 2019 majority investment in Orgain, one of the fastest-growing consumer brands in the nutrition industry. In 2022, Butterfly sold a majority stake in Orgain to Nestlé Health Science and continues to own a minority stake.
“We are beyond excited to roll up our sleeves and get to work with the Butterfly team. Partnering with a food-focused firm like Butterfly, we can drive enhanced value creation for all partners. We are really looking forward to what the future holds because Butterfly will enable Milk Specialties to achieve a new level of growth,” said Lenzmeier.
“We’ve admired Dave and team from afar for many years and are excited to welcome them to the Butterfly family,” said Butterfly founders and CEOs Adam Waglay and Dustin Beck. “We’re confident that Milk Specialties’ industry leadership and best-in-class team, combined with our expertise in the space, will enable us to drive even greater success for the business going forward. We can’t wait to see what we can accomplish together.”
“The Milk Specialties team has continually pushed the envelope of quality, service and innovation in the protein space, and we’re thrilled to join them in making high-quality, affordable nutrition products available to even more consumers,” added Butterfly Managing Director Aaron Kirkbride.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in Q1 2023. Butterfly was advised by Kirkland & Ellis LLP on legal matters in connection with the transaction. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, and Rabo Securities USA, Inc. acted as financial advisors to Milk Specialties and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP served as legal counsel.
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Loftus Appointed Sun-Maid President, COO
Sun-Maid Growers of California has appointed Steve Loftus as Sun-Maid president and chief operating officer, reporting to Harry Overly, executive chairman of the board. In this newly created role, all functional areas within Sun-Maid will report directly to Loftus as he will be accountable to the daily operations of the business. A 15-year industry veteran, Loftus is recognized for his ability to build and align cross functional partners around common objectives, delivering short and long term financial and strategic growth goals.
“Steve is an exceptional and proven leader in the food industry, and we’re looking forward to the contributions he will bring to the team as president and COO,” said Overly. “Steve’s strong track record of results and expertise will be a key driver in building our success as we continue to grow, transforming the iconic Sun-Maid brand to be even more relevant to today’s shoppers.”
Loftus is a multi-functional leader who has held various leadership roles at TreeHouse Foods and Kraft Heinz in Finance and General Management. Most recently, he served as the Vice president, general manager of the Condiments Business Unit at TreeHouse Foods, where he led the unit with approximately one billion in revenues across twelve product categories and five production facilities. Prior to that, Loftus was the head of customer finance at TreeHouse Foods, where he was responsible for all product and customer pricing strategies, as well as the company’s AOP planning processes.
In addition to delivering these positive results, Sun-Maid also continues with the integration of Plum PBC, Sun-Maid’s first ever acquisition. In his new role, Loftus will lead the Sun-Maid business as it continues to transform, achieve strong sales, and improve upon all operating metrics.
“I’ve always admired Sun-Maid, and I’m excited to officially join the team as president and chief operating officer to help take the brand to the next level,” added Loftus. “In the new role, I plan to continue accelerating Sun-Maid’s transformation into a consumer and market-focused organization, while executing daily operations that contribute to the company’s growth strategies.”
Loftus will replace Braden Bender, who has been serving as Sun-Maid’s interim president since September and is returning to his role as chief financial officer.
Founded in 1912, Sun-Maid Growers of California is a farmer’s cooperative of 600 grower families with vineyards in California’s Central Valley. From childhood to adulthood and generation to generation, Sun-Maid’s innovative snacks continue to feed imaginations one little red box at a time – because when imagination is used for good, there’s nothing more delicious! And while some things change, our real, minimally processed and consistently good ingredients haven’t. Always starting with a whole fruit you can see and taste, Sun-Maid continues to offer a trusted go-to snack that’s simple, healthy and versatile – imagine that!
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Organic Infant Formula Company Bobbie Available on NYC Uber Eats
Bobbie, the mom-founded and led organic infant formula company, is partnering with Uber Eats to deliver its organic, European-inspired formula directly to New Yorkers’ doors. The pilot program is taking the direct-to-consumer formula brand on-demand this holiday season for the first time ever, to bring parents peace of mind in knowing they can nourish their babies in a New York minute.
With the formula shortage still lingering and more than one-third of caregivers reporting difficulties finding formula as recently as November, accessibility to high quality formula is top of mind for Bobbie and Uber Eats. Layered on top of holiday shipping delays (in 2021, 9.4 percent of holiday packages shipped to New York faced delays, among the highest in the country), and unexpected winter weather, there’s a number of “oh no” reasons New York parents may need a can of formula delivered to their doorstep at the tap of a button this holiday season.
Since spring, over 30,000 people seeking asylum have migrated to New York City, with over 20,000 living in shelters, including hundreds of families with infants. That’s why for each can delivered through the pilot program, Bobbie’s social impact arm of the business, Bobbie for Change, will donate a can of formula to the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City in support of recently arrived asylum seekers living in temporary NYC shelters, making a difference for local families in need.
“Formula is food and nourishes our most vulnerable population. For years, we’ve helped our customers order nearly every type of food on Uber Eats, and we’re so proud to work with Bobbie to now help parents and caregivers get their babies formula on-demand through our app,“ said Beryl Sanders, head of new verticals partnerships at Uber Eats. “As a Bobbie mom myself, I know how important it is to have access to high quality formula at any given moment. This first-of-its-kind partnership couldn’t have come at a better time against the backdrop of this year’s formula shortage, and we’re thrilled to offer New Yorkers the opportunity to get their beloved Bobbie on Uber Eats.”
The Bobbie Care team has seen first-hand the need for instant, on-demand formula deliveries since launch in 2021. Parents have called, emailed, and direct-messaged on social, panicked about running out of their formula unexpectedly, unable to wait for their next shipment. Never one to sit idly by while our customers are in-need, Bobbie has relied on Uber to deliver hundreds of cans on their own dime, helping parents in a pinch for a plethora of need-formula-now reasons.
From using Uber to send a can of Bobbie to LaGuardia Airport when a customer was stuck with a delayed flight and a hungry baby to ordering an Uber ride through gridlocked Atlanta traffic to a mom who was on her last scoop and ran out of frozen breastmilk, formula is an essential good, and for parents who need a top-up in moments of crisis, there’s often no alternative solution readily available. Until now.
“From the earliest days at Bobbie, we’ve been focused on reimagining how to make formula one less thing modern parents stress about. As a team of moms, this couldn’t hit closer to home for us. That started with our business model, as the first direct-to-consumer formula brand in the U.S., continued with our launch on shelves at Target nationwide this summer, and it’s beyond exciting to add yet another way for parents to easily access Bobbie with a reliable partner like Uber Eats,” said Laura Modi, CEO and co-founder of Bobbie, and mom of three. “We’ve been putting cans of emergency Bobbie into Ubers and sending them to parents for years now. To see this partnership with Uber Eats come to life in an official way is surreal.”
The Bobbie x Uber Eats pilot will be available in NYC through Jan. 31, or while supply lasts. Deliveries will be available to most Uber Eats users in Manhattan. To order, open the Uber Eats app and search for Bobbie, or tap on the Baby and Kids Hub to see the Bobbie storefront. Cans are priced at $28 each.
Bobbie is an organic infant formula company that exists to build a parenting culture of confidence, not comparison, where every parent is supported in the feeding choice that is right for them and their baby. Bobbie launched in 2021 as the first direct-to-consumer, subscription-based infant formula company in the United States.
Today, Bobbie is the only mom-founded and led infant formula in the country and the fastest growing infant formula to enter the US market since the 1980s. Bobbie’s recipe is modeled after breastmilk and designed to meet the most recent EU nutritional standards for critical ingredients like DHA and iron, while also complying with all FDA nutritional standards for infant formula.
Bobbie is focused on providing a purposefully sourced, USDA Organic infant formula with Organic Valley milk from pasture raised cows. It was the first-ever infant formula to receive the Clean Label Project Purity Award and certification as a Pesticide-Free Product. Bobbie was founded in 2018, is based in San Francisco, and is venture-backed.
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