Ready Meals

Bain to Buy 27% CJ Foods America Stake for $320 Million

LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr

Seoul, South Korea-headquartered CJ CheilJedang Corp. (CJCJ) is selling 27% of its CJ Foods America business to the Boston, Massachusetts-based Bain Capital private equity firm for $320 million, according to Reuters.

Citing information gleaned from a recent regulatory filing, the news service reported that Bain would become a financial investor for CJCJ’s $1.84 billion acquisition of Bloomington, Minnesota-headquartered Schwan’s Company, a leading frozen food manufacturer and marketer with an extensive portfolio of products ranging from Red Baron and Freschetta pizza to Mrs. Smith’s and Edwards desserts, Pagoda Asian-style snacks and Minh appetizers.

schwans co. pizza

Founded in 1952 as a one-man ice cream home delivery business, today Schwan’s Company operates a frozen food production infrastructure and sales network throughout the United States, generating approximately $3 billion in annual sales. It has more than 12,000 employees, 17 manufacturing facilities and 10 distribution centers throughout the nation, producing a wide range of products for retail, foodservice and industrial customers.

With the acquisition, CJCJ’s network of manufacturing facilities in the world’s largest processed food market grew from five plants in California, New York, New Jersey and Ohio to 22 factories. It also gained access to logistics, distribution, and sales networks across the USA.

CJCJ first entered the United States market in 2005 through the acquisition of Annie Chun, followed by the purchase of Omni in 2009 and Gahanna, Ohio-based Kahiki Foods in 2018. The company has built a successful business in North America based on its Bibigo Dumpling brand. Through preemptive investments in North America it is producing frozen dumplings, ready meals and noodles. In 2016 an R&D center was established in California with the aim of spreading “K-Food” culture based on differentiated technology.

About Bain Capital

Managing over $105 billion of investments from offices on four continents, Bain Capital ranks as one of the world’s leading private multi-asset alternative investment firms. Since being founded in 1984 the company has expanded into several asset classes including private equity, credit, public equity, venture capital and real estate.

Bain Capital logo