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Hometown Food Company Acquires Birch Benders

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Hometown Food Company Acquires Birch Benders

Hometown Food Company, (“Hometown Foods“) home to an iconic portfolio of American baking brands, controlled by Brynwood Partners VIII L.P., has completed the acquisition of Birch Benders from Sovos Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ: “SOVO”) (“Sovos Brands“), a public company listed on the NASDAQ exchange. The terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.

Hometown Food Company reinforces its commitment to the better-for-you food category with Birch Benders acquisition.

Founded in 2011, Birch Benders Pancake & Waffle Mixes, Toaster Waffles, Pancake and Baking Cups, Baking Mixes and Frostings, Cookies and Syrups have it all: convenience, deliciousness, and quality. Birch Benders offers an expansive portfolio of keto, paleo, and organic options that are sold at grocery and mass retailers, as well as through the E-Commerce channel, nationally.

Hometown Food Company is home to baking brands including Pillsbury Baking®, Funfetti®, Hungry Jack®, Arrowhead Mills®, White Lily®, Jim Dandy®, Martha White®, and De Wafelbakkers®. They believe that, like a favorite recipe, great things come from the right mix of ingredients, years of expertise and plenty of care.

“We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of Birch Benders into Hometown Food Company,” said Henk Hartong, Chairman and CEO of Brynwood Partners. “Birch Benders was a pioneer in the health and wellness space and natural baking channel and we are excited to further our commitment to the pancake and baking mix categories. This acquisition is complementary to our existing brand in the space, Arrowhead Mills®, and reinforces our commitment to and industry position in the better-for-you category.”

“The Birch Benders acquisition is a wonderful addition to Hometown Food Company’s portfolio of brands and it increases our footprint in the better-for-you, breakfast and baking categories,” said Tom Polke, President and CEO of Hometown Food Company. “We are truly delighted to have the opportunity to support Birch Benders in its next phase of growth.”

Brynwood Partners’ portfolio includes Harvest Hill Beverage Company, Carolina Beverage Group, Hometown Food Company, Buitoni Food Company, and Great Kitchens Food Company. Birch Benders increases the total Brynwood platform to more than $2.3 billion in annual sales.

About Hometown Food Company:

Hometown Food Company, based in Chicago, IL, was formed by Brynwood Partners in June 2018 to acquire a portfolio of brands from The J.M. Smucker Company. The portfolio includes the exclusive U.S. rights to the iconic Pillsbury® brand’s shelf-stable baking products, including Funfetti®, along with the Hungry Jack®, Arrowhead Mills®, White Lily®, Jim Dandy®, Martha White® and De Wafelbakkers® brands. Pillsbury®, Funfetti® and Hungry Jack® are leading national brands in the shelf-stable baking and breakfast categories and White Lily®, Jim Dandy® and Martha White® are regional brands known for flour, cornmeal and grits. Hometown Foods manufactures the majority of its products from its 650,000 square foot facility in Toledo, OH where the company employs 255 full-time employees. 

About Brynwood Partners:

Brynwood Partners, founded in 1984 and based in Greenwich, CT, is an operationally-focused private equity firm that makes control investments in North American-based lower middle market companies. The firm targets non-core brands or companies operating exclusively in the consumer sector. Brynwood Partners currently manages more than $1 billion of private equity capital for its limited partners, which include U.S. and international pension funds, fund-of-funds, endowments, foundations, high net worth family investment offices and financial institutions. 

Acquisition

Graybar Acquires Blazer Electric Supply

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Expands presence in Southern Colorado

Graybar, a leading distributor of electrical, communications and data networking products and provider of related supply chain management and logistics services, today announced that it will acquire Blazer Electric Supply, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, effective March 1, 2024.

Blazer Electric Supply is an electrical distributor that serves construction, commercial, institutional, and industrial customers. The company was founded in 2009 and operates two locations in southern Colorado. As a subsidiary of Graybar, the company will operate under the Blazer Electric Supply name. Trevor Blazer will serve as president, and the company’s employees will continue to support customers with the same products, solutions, and services.

“Blazer is a market leader in its territory, with comprehensive product lines, extensive capabilities and a reputation for outstanding customer service,” said Kathleen M. Mazzarella, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Graybar. “Blazer fits well with Graybar’s core values, our people-oriented culture and our long-term growth strategy. We are thrilled to welcome the Blazer team to Graybar and look forward to achieving even greater success together.”

“I am incredibly proud of our company and grateful for the employees who have been so instrumental in our success,” said Steve Blazer, president of Blazer Electric Supply. “This is an exciting new chapter for our company. Joining forces with Graybar presents a tremendous opportunity to expand our service capabilities and grow our business for the long term. It also allows us to sustain a distinctive culture and positive work environment for our employees. I am confident that we have a bright future as part of Graybar.”

Graybar, a Fortune 500 corporation and one of the largest employee-owned companies in North America, is a leader in the distribution of high quality electrical, communications and data networking products, and specializes in related supply chain management and logistics services. Through its network of more than 325 North American distribution facilities, it stocks and sells products from thousands of manufacturers, helping its customers power, network, automate and secure their facilities with speed, intelligence and efficiency.

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Acquisition

Digital Paper App Goodnotes Acquires Korean AI Startup, Dropthebit, to Accelerate Development of AI Features

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Goodnotes, the leading digital paper app, has announced that it has acquired Dropthebit, the creators of Traw, a service that automatically organizes meeting, lecture, and video content into summarized notes and videos. Following the acquisition, Traw’s generative AI technology will be further enhanced and adopted into the Goodnotes platform.

Kyumin Sim, former CEO and Co-Founder of Traw (left) and Steven Chan, CEO and Founder of Goodnotes.

Since its launch in 2020, Traw has focused its efforts on using technology to automate notes creation, both for a user’s own materials and for the content they find online. Following a seed investment led by Capstone Partners and KB Investment, Dropthebit launched Traw’s initial offering, Traw Whiteboard, in 2022. This smart digital whiteboard for lectures and meetings automatically recorded when a user spoke or drew on the board. Traw then automatically edited the video into meeting minutes with subtitles and distilled the video into a document for easy reading and editing. Last May, the company introduced Traw AI, a tool that automatically organized and summarized YouTube video content. Traw AI could create short video or textual summaries and even extract key information from videos into a table format, transforming the research process.

While this comes as Goodnotes’ first acquisition, this is not the company’s first venture in investment aimed at accelerating improvements to the overall user experience. In late 2023, Goodnotes invested $1.9M into South Korea’s largest digital stationery platform, WeBudding. This strategic investment was the first within a larger initiative to partner with rising startups that offer technology or services that complements the burgeoning digital paper space. AI innovation has been a particular focus for Goodnotes following the 2023 launch of Goodnotes 6, which included the world’s first generative AI for handwritten text and thereby transformed Goodnotes into the world’s first AI-powered digital paper company.

“Like many M&As, the meeting of Goodnotes and Traw was like fitting together forgotten puzzle pieces,” said Kyumin Sim, former Traw co-founder and CEO and now a product lead at Goodnotes. “We’ve put a lot of thought into what digital note-taking should look like, so it’s especially an honor to collaborate with Goodnotes, the world’s most popular note-taking app. I’m excited about the new features this will inspire and the value we’ll bring to many people.”

In addition to leveraging the skilled Traw team to create new ways to enhance AI note-taking features, Goodnotes plans to explore extending its offerings beyond “pen and paper” note-taking, incorporating modalities beyond the stylus, and eyeing new mediums to integrate into the platform.

“When I met the Traw team for the first time in Seoul, I knew right away that the AI tools they’ve built for audio and video recordings are a natural fit for Goodnotes,” said Steven, CEO at Goodnotes. “I was really impressed by not only their innovative ideas, but also their passion and drive. We feel very fortunate to be in a position to acquire small, capable teams like Traw to accelerate our roadmap.”

About Goodnotes
Goodnotes is the leading AI digital paper used by more than 24 million monthly users worldwide. Launched in 2011, Goodnotes started as an improvement to physical paper notes — introducing the ability to take handwritten digital notes, search handwritten text, and organize everything into a digital library. Today, Goodnotes is pioneering generative AI for digital handwriting in the productivity space. Goodnotes was most recently named Apple’s 2022 iPad App of the Year.

About Dropthebit
Dropthebit, established in 2020, is a startup that has been founded to create services to improve everyone’s work efficiency. Its first product, ‘Traw,’ is a service that automatically organizes all content from meetings and lectures on a whiteboard into videos and transcripts. Since this year, it has been launching ‘Traw AI,’ which uses AI technology to organize and convert various data easily.

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Acquisition

PrevTech Innovations acquires Agrivolt to Enforce its Leadership in Electrical Network Safety for the Agricultural Sector

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PrevTech Innovations and Agrivolt have joined forces, introducing an unprecedented offering to the agricultural sector. This acquisition unites their complementary strengths in electrical network safety monitoring and stray voltage control. Together, these two established companies are dedicated to prevention, innovation, and providing solutions and expertise to meet customer needs.

PrevTech Innovations: The leader in Electrical Safety and Prevention
PrevTech is the leader in providing advice-based prevention and power safety solutions. Its dedicated team of experts leverages cutting-edge technology and deep understanding of the industry to help businesses identify and mitigate electrical risks effectively and proactively. The company assists business operators in identifying and mitigating electrical and thermal issues that could evolve into much larger problems. Recognized by leading insurance carriers, PrevTech’s mission is to reduce the risk of electrical fires while providing peace of mind to their clients.

Agrivolt: Experts in Stray Voltage Control for Animal Well-Being
Agrivolt is the established leader and provider of choice in the field of stray voltage detection, control, and mitigation, having served the agricultural market for over 30 years. Their expertise is supported by more than 2,000 customers across North America.  Agrivolt offers a comprehensive range of technologies and certified products designed to detect and neutralize stray voltage, which can be a crucial factor in providing a stress free environment for livestock. Animal welfare and herd productivity are at the heart of Agrivolt’s mission.

A Partnership Rooted in Comprehensive Solutions
Uniting PrevTech Innovations and Agrivolt will provide an unparalleled opportunity in today’s protein industry. Combining PrevTech’s advanced monitoring and risk prevention approach with Agrivolt’s specialized solutions for managing stray voltage, these two companies are poised to deliver comprehensive and integrated solutions for electrical network safety and animal welfare.

“Modern farms use a variety of advanced equipment to maximize productivity, resulting in a significant increase in power consumption. The integration of Agrivolt’s cutting-edge products and unique expertise with PrevTech’s proactive approach enables us to provide a complete solution for the safety and integrity of our customers’ electrical network. By raising awareness of the importance of a safe electrical network on farms, we improve their prevention strategy, increase their resilience to the risk of fire and ensure an electrically stress-free environment for animals”, said Pierre-André Meunier, president and founder of PrevTech innovations, who will also take on the role of president of Agrivolt.

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