Stir Foods Acquires Celtrade

Stir Foods and Celtrade join forces to create a custom sauce and dressing business with broader capabilities

Orange, CA, February 18, 2020 – Wind Point Partners and portfolio company Stir Foods (“Stir” or the “Company”), a leading custom manufacturer of soups, sauces, dressings, and fresh salsas for retail industrial and foodservice customers, are pleased to announce that Stir has acquired Celtrade Canada, Inc. (“Celtrade”) from The Succession Fund, a private equity firm managed by Argosy Partners Ltd. Celtrade is a leading private label and contract manufacturer of custom sauces, dressings and condiments for retail and foodservice customers. Celtrade operates a 56,000 square foot, Safe Quality Food (“SQF”) certified facility in Toronto, Canada.

The combination of Stir and Celtrade creates a stronger, more diversified custom sauce and dressing platform with redundant manufacturing capabilities across multiple geographies, a broad packaging assortment and a deep bench of culinary talent. Both companies pride themselves on cultures focused on delivering the highest quality custom solutions for customers through new and innovative products.

“The acquisition of Celtrade has become a key component of our value creation plan and boosts Stir’s ability to serve our customers with an enhanced culinary staff and a more diversified geographic footprint."

Joe Lawler, Managing Director

Milt Liu, CEO of Stir, expressed, “I am thrilled to welcome the Celtrade team to Stir. The cultures of our two companies are very similar, making this a natural partnership. Celtrade has built a terrific business with a great customer base, team and operation. Our plan is to invest behind Celtrade and leverage our combined capabilities to accelerate growth and create value for all stakeholders.”

Joe Lawler, Managing Director with Wind Point Partners, stated, “The acquisition of Celtrade has become a key component of our value creation plan and boosts Stir’s ability to serve our customers with an enhanced culinary staff and a more diversified geographic footprint. Additionally, we have been impressed by Chris Bouchard, Celtrade’s CEO, as well as his entire team. They will be a terrific addition to the Stir organization.”

“I’m proud of my team’s never-ending commitment to our customers at Celtrade and we are excited to partner with Stir,” said Bouchard. “This combination is highly complementary in terms of capabilities that we can bring to our combined customer bases. Further, the financial backing of Wind Point Partners will enable continued investment in new capabilities to drive growth at our Toronto facility.”

Larry Klar, Partner at Argosy Partners, noted, “We are proud to have been a part of Celtrade’s evolution to become a leader in its niche and we are confident that the combination of Stir Foods, Chris Bouchard and his team will build on Celtrade’s already impressive track record.”

Reed Smith and Stikeman Elliott served as legal counsel to Stir. Osprey Capital Partners served as financial advisor and Minden Gross served as legal counsel to Celtrade.