December 10, 2020

By Lynda Kiernan, Global AgInvesting Media

Indiana-based Teays River Investments has agreed to acquire family-owned Grimmway Farms – the self-proclaimed largest carrot producer in the world – for an undisclosed sum. 

Headquartered in Bakersfield, California, and founded in the 1960s by Rod and Bob Grimm, Grimmway is the force behind the popularity of baby carrots. Today the company cultivates and sells more than 65 organic crops and produces more than 135 seasonal and year-round products that are distributed globally.

With acreage in Columbia Basin, Washington; Live Oak, Florida; San Joaquin Valley, California; Coachella and Imperial Valley, California; Cummings Valley, California; and San Luis Valley, Colorado, Grimmway is dedicated to sustainable production practices to reduce waste, conserve water, reduce fertilizer use, and to minimize energy consumption.

And although Grimmway is best known as a leading carrot producer, the farming company has a significant presence in the overall organic vegetable space, and has just donated $5 million to establish the Center for Organic Production and Research at Cal Poly.

A spokesperson for the family-owned company told Bakersfield.com that the existing management team will remain in place following the closing of the deal expected later this year, and that it will remain headquartered in Bakersfield, adding that Teays River’s values align with their own. 

“They are a respected steward that embraces what our core values are,” the spokesperson told Bakersfield.com, “and they believe very strongly in the continuity of our management team as well as our thousands of team members across the country.”

Grimmway’s biggest rival in the carrot space is Bolthouse Farms, which itself was sold by Campbell Soup to Los Angeles-based, food-focused private equity firm Butterfly Equity for $510 million last year. 

Also headquartered in Bakersfield as well as Santa Monica, California, Bolthouse operates facilities in Hodgkins, Illinois; Wheatley, Ontario; and Prosser, Washington, and employs 2,200 employees.

Earlier this year, in March, it was announced that Bolthouse agreed to acquire the carrot operations of Arizona-based Rousseau Farming Company for an undisclosed amount. 

That same month Bolthouse said that it saw demand for its carrots double as consumers began panic-buying at the beginning of the pandemic and more consumers began eating at home. Together, Grimmway and Bolthouse account for 80 percent of the U.S.’s fresh carrot crop.

– Lynda Kiernan is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, and HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She is also a contributor to the GAI Gazette. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.