Schwan’s Company, a national food business, announced it has acquired from NE Foods Inc. its wholly owned subsidiaries of Better Baked Foods and Drayton Foods. The terms of the sale were not disclosed.
The acquisition represents the second in as many months for Schwan’s as it works to increase its capabilities in the US pizza market. The company announced in June the acquisition of MaMa Rosa’s Pizza, based in Sidney, Ohio.
“We are focused on adding to our capabilities and growing our share of the US pizza market. We are extremely happy to add Better Baked Foods and Drayton Foods to our family of businesses as both are highly regarded for providing quality foods to their retail, food-service and home-delivery customers nationwide,” said Schwan’s CEO Dimitrios Smyrnios.
“The US consumer’s passion for pizza continues to evolve and grow in exciting ways,” added Smyrnios. “The addition of Better Baked, Drayton and MaMa Rosa’s to Schwan’s will deepen our collaborations with strategic food-service and retail customers on innovating and growing the pizza category and meeting consumer demand.”
Better Baked Foods, based in North East, Penn., makes pizza, French bread pizza and sandwich items for private-label customers and food-service venues, and offers brands such as Better Baked Classics™, Daybreak Classics®, Papa Presto®, Zap-A-Snack® and Odyssey® foods in retail stores. The business, which includes Better Baked Foods of Erie, LLC, operates production facilities in North East, Penn.; Erie, Penn.; and Westfield, N.Y.
Drayton Foods, based at its production facility in Fargo, N.D., makes pizza crusts, dough balls, breadsticks and dinner rolls for its food-industry customers, and offers its Two Sicily’s® brand in retail stores.