Sturm Foods

Sturm Foods is a subsidiary company that manufactures dry groceries under private label brands and distributes them to the foodservice industry and grocery suppliers throughout the world.

History

Sturm Foods' origin was a dairy farm operation begun in 1905 by Arthur Sturm and his four sons. The boys began buying eggs from local farmers and shipping them to relatives in Chicago for sale there. This small business eventually expanded into other commodities during the 1930s, such as sugar, seed, twine, potatoes, flour, coal and gasoline. World War II helped increase the business, at that point known as A. Sturm & Sons. The company began manufacturing for the first time bulk amounts of dried food products, such as eggs and powdered milk, to be delivered to American servicemen on the battle fronts. The company entered the private label distribution market in the early 1970s and continues this business model to the current day. The business flourished throughout the eighties and nineties with a broadening product line and employment increasing from 150 to 500 employees. In May 2005, Sturm Foods was acquired by the LLC and private equity firm HM Capital Partners.

Monday, December 1, 2009 HM Capital announced that Sturm Foods was sold to Treehouse Foods for approximately $660 million. The purchase price is made up of $400m in new debt issuance, $100m in equity stock, with the remainder funded by TreeHouse’s existing revolving credit facility. With this purchase the US soup-to-salad dressings firm has made a move to further expand its dry grocery offerings. For the 12 months leading to September 30, 2009 Sturm generated sales of $340m. Following the acquisition, TreeHouse has estimated that it will have pro-forma sales of around $1.9bn and adjusted EBITDA of over $275m. The company also expects the transaction to be more than 16% accretive on an annualised basis following the acquisition, adding $0.38 to $0.40 in earnings per share

External links

• Consumer/Corporate Splash page