Welcome Dairy Holdings (“Welcome”), a New Heritage Capital portfolio company, is pleased to announce it has acquired North Star Processing (“North Star”). North Star is a leading provider of spray drying services for the food ingredient industry, with an impressive track record of growth since it was founded in 2000. The acquisition further extends Welcome’s capabilities and will allow it to provide services spanning initial flavor formulation through full scale ingredient manufacturing.
“Similar to Welcome, North Star shares a customer-first approach and has made a name for itself as a trusted, valuable partner to its customers,” said Terry Schneider, President of Welcome. “We’re thrilled to bring spray drying capabilities in-house. We now offer the full spectrum of dairy ingredients to our customers, including dairy flavors, dry blend and spray dried dairy and non-dairy seasonings, shelf stable and refrigerated sauces, and functional cheese products. This full offering means we can better address our customers’ most important product development needs.”
Tim Nicholson, former CEO and co-owner of North Star added, “We’ve spent the last twenty years building a business that put its customers and employees first. We’re excited to have found a partner in Welcome Dairy who shares those same values and will continue to do right by our customers and employees in the future.”
“Welcome has continued to demonstrate tremendous organic growth since we partnered with the founders of the business two years ago,” added Melissa Barry, Partner at New Heritage Capital. “We’re excited to be executing on our investment thesis and growing Welcome through the acquisition of North Star. We look forward to continuing to invest in the growth of Welcome Dairy.”
About Welcome Dairy Holdings
Welcome Dairy Holdings represents the combined interests of Welcome Dairy, LLC and Gamay Food Ingredients, LLC, two companies that worked together for decades and officially merged in 2016. The Company is the go-to provider of dairy and non-dairy flavors and ingredients, having developed an impressive collection of proprietary recipes catering to a diversified, blue-chip customer base. Welcome Dairy traces its roots back to the late 1800s, when the Company was first established as a local manufacturer of Colby cheese in Colby, Wisconsin.
About New Heritage Capital
New Heritage Capital is a Boston-based private equity firm with a twenty-year history of partnering with growing, middle market, founder-owned businesses. With its innovative investment structures like the Private IPO®, Heritage provides founders with a combination of liquidity and growth capital while allowing founders to maintain control of their business. With decades of experience at managing growth, Heritage gives its partners the strategic, operational and financial guidance to help its companies reach their growth objectives.