Lancaster Colony acquires sprouted grain bakery Angelic Bakehouse

07-Nov-2016 - Last updated on 07-Nov-2016 at 15:48 GMT

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T. Marzetti Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of publicly traded Lancaster Colony Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire all of the assets of Angelic Bakehouse, Inc., a manufacturer and marketer of premium sprouted grain bakery products. The transaction is expected to close later this month.

Lancaster Colony said that annual sales for Angelic Bakehouse are approximately $12 million and the impact of the acquisition on Lancaster Colony's earnings per share is expected to be near neutral for the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2017. Other terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

"There's an opportunity in better-for-you food products, especially in the bakery and deli department," Dale Ganobsik, director of investor relations and corporate planning at Lancaster Colony Corporation told FoodNavigator-USA. "The non-GMO label on [the products] is another thing we think will be appealing to consumers looking for better-for-you products."

Sprouted grains: A lucrative segment

The founders of Wisconsin-based Angelic Bakehouse, husband and wife James and Jenny Marino, will continue to lead the Angelic Bakehouse business post-closing. "We'll keep the existing brand and expand it through new channels and wider geographic expansion also," Ganobsik said.

They built the company from a Milwaukee bakery they acquired in 2009 and added a variety of premium sprouted grain bakery products, including sliced bread, dinner rolls, pizza crusts and wraps, which are sold in big specialty retailers such as Treasure Island Foods and Whole Foods.

Dave Ciesinski, Lancaster Colony's president and chief operating officer, said in a press release: "We are thrilled to add Angelic Bakehouse and their terrific lineup of non-GMO bakery products to our growing specialty foods business. Angelic Bakehouse is a highly relevant, on-trend business that produces a variety of great tasting, nutritious, non-GMO bakery items featuring their proprietary sprouted mash ingredient crafted from an assortment of unique sprouted grains.

“We are also excited about the opportunities that the Angelic Bakehouse sprouted mash base provides for product innovation, a recent example being the introduction of Angelic Bakehouse bread crisps in three different varieties. We are very pleased to welcome the Angelic Bakehouse employees to the family of Lancaster Colony companies and look forward to a successful future together."