Birch Benders Acquired By Hometown Foods As Sovos Narrows Focus

Less than two years after the baking mix brand was sold to Sovos Brands, Birch Benders announced today it has been acquired by baking platform Hometown Food Company.

Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

“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 in a press release.

Hometown, owned by private equity firm Brynwood Partners, manages a baking product portfolio that includes the Pillsbury Baking Co., Funfetti, Hungry Jack, Arrowhead Mills, White Lily, Jim Dandy, Martha White, and De Wafelbakkers — all formerly part of the J.M. Smucker Company. Hometown operates a 650,000 square foot plant in Toledo, Ohio.

Birch Benders will expand its offerings in the better-for-you baking set and complement legacy brand Arrowhead Mills within the overall portfolio, Brynwood executives said in a release.

The move positions Hometown to compete with brands like protein-enhanced baking and snack maker Kodiak Cakes, which was sold to private equity firm L Catterton in 2021.

Birch Benders was sold to Sovos brands in August 2020 by its co-founders Lizzi Ackerman and Matt LaCasse for $151.4 million. At the time of that deal, Sovos said Ackerman and LaCasse would have a five year “consulting agreement” with the low-sugar and low-carb brand.

Though Sovos has tried to expand Birch Benders into new categories, launching shelf-stable cookies last year, the brand has struggled. On its third quarter earnings report in November, Sovos reported a roughly 34% decline in net sales for Birch Benders due to a softening of both the pancake and waffle mix categories as well as waning consumer interest for keto-centric products, a core point of differentiation for many of the baking brand’s SKUs.

Birch Benders represented only 5% of Sovos’s net sales in the third quarter, compared to Italian food brand Rao’s which represented 64% of sales. In a press release today, Sovos CEO and president Todd Lachman said the divestment would allow the company to focus attention around a smaller subsegment of brands.

“Today’s announcement reflects Sovos Brands’ continued commitment to growing our core Rao’s and Noosa brands and, in particular, accelerating Rao’s to $1 billion in net sales and beyond,” Lachman said. “As we look ahead, Sovos Brands will be a more focused business that is better-positioned to drive sustainable sector leading growth for years to come.”