Brynwood Partners acquiring Aryzta’s take-and-bake pizza business

Aryzta North America’s take-and-bake pizza business has a new owner. Brynwood Partners, through its newly formed portfolio company Great Kitchens Food, has acquired the business, making Great Kitchens a leader in the take-and-bake private label pizza space 

"We are thrilled to announce the creation of Great Kitchens," said Henk Hartong III, chairman and CEO of Brynwood Partners. "We are excited to return to the private label pizza space with this new investment. Our prior investment in the private label frozen pizza space with Richelieu Foods Inc. was very successful and we are confident in the prospects for Great Kitchens. We look forward to bringing a significant level of investment in new products and recipe innovations to our retail partners through our best-in-class facilities."

Great Kitchens will be headquartered in Romeoville, Ill., continuing to operate a 165,000-sq.ft. crust manufacturing facility in Chicago Heights, Ill., alongside the Romeoville topping plant. Great Kitchens will be led by Admir Basic, who joins the company from Aryzta as the new company’s president and chief commercial officer. Bill Steckel has joined Great Kitchens as CFO. 

"On behalf of Brynwood Partners, I would like to sincerely thank the Aryzta team for being such great partners on this carveout,” said Ian MacTaggart, Brynwood Partners CFO and COO. “This is the first deal we have done together, and we look forward to continuing our relationship.”

Brynwood Partners, headquartered in Greenwich, Conn., now has acquired 56 brands from 21 different corporate sellers.