Ancor Capital Partners is pleased to announce the sale of Liguria Foods, Inc., a portfolio company, to CTI Foods, a portfolio company of Thomas H. Lee Partners and Goldman Sachs & Co.
Ancor, along with co-investor Brown Brothers Harriman Capital Partners (BBH), acquired Liguria Foods in 2008 as a part of a spin-out of a division of a larger publicly held company.
Founded in 1974 and headquartered in Humboldt, Iowa, Liguria (www.liguriafoods.com) is a value-added food-service solutions partner that manufactures high-quality branded and private-label pepperoni for the large, expanding $1 billion U.S. pepperoni market, with a particular focus on independent and multi-unit pizzerias and sandwich shops. The company supplements its pepperoni offering with a full suite of protein pizza toppings and other dry sausage products. Liguria has aggressively built market share by combining highest-quality ingredients, consistent recipe formulation and Old World processing techniques with a commitment to understanding and addressing customer needs.
“We are extremely proud of the accomplishments that Liguria has made over the eight years since we acquired the company,” said Ray Kingsbury, Managing Director at Ancor. “When we originally were presented the investment opportunity, we were able to identify an executive team to transition Liguria into an independent entity, and partnered with Brown Brothers Harriman to buy the division. Since the acquisition, we’ve made strategic investments in the team and the plant in order to grow the company. Liguria also experienced organic growth by adding new customers and further penetrating existing customers. We are deeply appreciative of the management team and the partnership they embraced with Ancor and BBH.”