Sweet Harvest Foods, one of the largest honey packers in North America, has purchased Nature Nate’s Honey Co. from its founder, Nathan Sheets.
McKinney, Texas-based Nature Nate’s has grown to become the largest honey brand in the U.S. and is the leading provider of 100 percent pure, raw and unfiltered honey in the retail segment. 
Nature Nate’s will merge with Cannon Falls, Minnesota-based Sweet Harvest as part of the Blue Road Capital portfolio, an independent private equity firm making control investments in agricultural production and supply chain companies.
Sheets founded Nature Nate’s in 1997 with a commitment to introduce raw and unfiltered honey to the country.
During the past 24 years, Sheets’ leadership helped build raw and unfiltered honey into a subcategory that accounts for 37 percent of today’s U.S. honey category. Meanwhile, Nature Nate’s has donated millions through the company’s Honey Gives Hope initiative.
“Sweet Harvest and Blue Road believe in that vision, bring expertise in natural foods and agricultural markets and enable us to grow the honey category at an accelerated pace. We’re excited to join Sweet Harvest and create a collaboration that will benefit our consumers and retailers by making premium honey accessible to every home in the country,” Sheets said.
“Sweet Harvest and Nature Nate’s teams align well, from our mission to grow the honey category, to our standards in quality honey, to our company cultures,” said Ken Stickevers, CEO of Sweet Harvest. “I look forward to working with Nate and his team to merge the best insights and practices from each organization to rapidly accelerate the honey and natural sweetener market with our customers.”
As a worldwide leader in the sourcing and distribution of natural sweeteners, Sweet Harvest Foods provides consistent, verifiable quality and operational flexibility with facilities in Minnesota, California and Michigan. For more information, visit sweetharvestfoods.com.
