US-based Great Kitchens Food Co. has bought the Uno Foods pizza business from private-equity firm Newport Global Advisors.
Uno Foods, which sat under the umbrella of US pizza chain Uno Restaurant Holdings Corporation, supplies frozen and chilled pizzas, calzones, entrées and appetisers to retail and foodservice customers. It has a manufacturing facility in Brockton, Massachusetts.
Great Kitchens Food Co. makes take-and-bake pizzas and flatbreads that are sold to retail and foodservice outlets. The company operates a 165,000-square-foot crust facility in Chicago Heights and a 155,000-square-foot toppings plant in Romeoville, Illinois. The company employs approximately 800 people across the two facilities.
The group was set up by private-equity firm Brynwood Partners in 2020 when it acquired the North American pizza business of Swiss bakery firm Aryzta.
The financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
“We welcome the Brockton, MA facility to our business and look forward to making investments into that location as we work to expand the reach of the Pizzeria Uno brand,” Henk Hartong, the chairman and CEO of Brynwood Partners, said.
In conjunction with this transaction, Admir Basic has been promoted to president and CEO of Great Kitchens Food Co. He was a former executive at Aryzta and remained with the business following the deal in 2020. “We have tremendous confidence in Admir as he will continue to lead Great Kitchens and oversee the integration of Uno Foods,” Hartong added.
The Brynwood Partners portfolio already includes Buitoni Food Co. and Hometown Food Co. Earlier this year, Hometown Food Co. snapped up pancake and waffle mix brand Birch Benders from fellow US food group Sovos Brands.
The Uno Foods acquisition increases the manufacturing network under Brynwood’s control to 16 facilities and takes the total sales generated by its assets to around $2.5bn in annual sales.
