New York-based investment firm AUA Private Equity Partners has created a new food investment vehicle, Gourmet Culinary Holdings (GCH) – a company organized to acquire interests in, and partner with, U.S.-based premium specialty food manufacturers.
GCH was established through a pair of deals executed by AUA. In March, AUA invested alongside the owners of Gourmet Kitchen, a manufacturer of specialty prepared foods for U.S. hotels, restaurants, universities, corporate campuses, and distributors that was founded in 1985 in Neptune, New Jersey.
The company’s artisanal product lines include appetizers, hors d’oeuvres, ethnic foods, breakfast items, desserts, and custom specialty foods.
One month later, on April 25, the GCH platform expanded through a second investment in Kabobs Holdings LLC (Kabobs), a 30-year old, leading manufacturer of side items, hor d’oeuvres, ethnic, and breakfast foods that it supplies to foodservice operations, hotels, convention centers, corporate campuses, universities, and professional centers across the U.S. and Canada.
Led by Andy Unanue, former COO of Goya Foods, the largest and most successful Hispanic-owned food company in the U.S., AUA Private Equity currently manages $275 million in assets under management. Building on its success in the U.S. Hispanic food market, the firm focuses on family-owned companies that either currently target, or should be targeting, the U.S. Hispanic population – a demographic that is expected to have buying power of $1.8 billion by 2020. Together with partners Steven Flyer and David Benyaminy – who have more than two decades of experience in private equity, bring deep sector insight, and connections through long-established relationships – AUA offers a combination of growth capital and customized capital solutions, making investments of $20 to $75 million in companies that generate north of $5 million in EBITDA.
“We are excited to establish the Gourmet Culinary Holdings platform and partner with talented operators at each of Gourmet Kitchen and Kabobs,” said Andy Unanue, managing partner, AUA Private Equity. “Based on the strong performance in our portfolio company Indulge Desserts Holdings, LLC, we hope to create similar economies of scale that will allow our partners to accelerate growth and continue to offer premium customized solutions to our customers.”
“We are pleased to establish Gourmet Culinary Holdings in partnership with the owners of Gourmet Kitchen and Kabobs as we create the leading premium specialty prepared foods platform in the U.S. Combining the resources, expertise and industry knowledge of our partners will lead to significant synergies across our platform,” said Steven Flyer, partner with AUA.
The creation of the GCH platform will foster Gourmet Kitchen and Kabobs in better serving their existing customers via broader product lines, the availability of more robust culinary and product development resources, and added capacity for growth, states AUA in a recent announcement. Moving forward within this new structure, the management teams of both companies will remain in place.
“We are extremely enthusiastic to partner with AUA and the owners of Gourmet Kitchen,” said R. Terry Hunt, chairman of Kabobs. “As we sought to grow our company and expand our facility, we felt AUA was the ideal partner to help accelerate that growth. We share their vision of creating a premium specialty prepared foods platform with a focus on quality, consistency, and extraordinary customer service.”
-Lynda Kiernan