Eustis, Florida-based Florida Food Products has acquired Amelia Bay, a provider of fresh brewed tea extracts, coffee extracts and botanicals based out of Johns Creek, Georgia. The acquisition will strengthen FFP’s position in the clean label ingredients space by adding a beverage platform to its portfolio of natural products within the meat, savory, health and wellness markets.
Amelia Bay was founded in 1989 with a goal to develop new manufacturing technology to capture the true essence and taste of brewed tea and coffee. Today, Amelia Bay is an industry leader for industrial scale brewed tea, coffee and botanicals that truly reflect the key ingredients and compounds they contain. The company’s flavor chemists and R&D staff have created some of the most well-known and beloved brands in the marketplace today.
FFP is a leader in clean label food and beverage ingredient solutions. With a mission to “improve the food we eat by producing real ingredients from nature that work,” the company has delivered a multitude of clean label solutions through its vast manufacturing capabilities including extraction, fermentation, drying and blending. FFP’s latest innovations include VegStable Plus, a natural phosphate alternative for the meat industry, and a line of fermented vegetable juices that provides novel flavor and taste enhancement delivery to a wide variety of end applications, most notably plant-based foods.
“I am thrilled to partner with the Crandall family who have built an outstanding clean label tea and beverage platform business,” said FFP’s CEO Jim Holdrieth. “This acquisition supports our overall mission of becoming the industry’s leading provider of ingredients from nature that work. The combination of FFP’s natural fruit and vegetable ingredients with Amelia Bay’s coffee, tea and botanical offering expands our ability to provide customers an innovative, great tasting, clean label beverage solution.”
Jason Crandall, Amelia Bay’s president, said, “We are extremely excited to partner with a company that has the scale and capabilities of FFP. This acquisition gives Amelia Bay access to new technologies and ingredients that will pave the way to creating the next generation of all natural, clean label food and beverage ingredients.”
MidOcean Partners, a middle market private equity firm focused on the business services and consumer sectors, is the controlling shareholder of Florida Food Products.
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher acted as legal advisor to Florida Food Products and MidOcean. Houlihan Lokey acted as exclusive financial advisor and Nelson Mullins acted as legal advisor to Amelia Bay.
