Sovos Brands Acquires Birch Benders

Food company Sovos Brands announced today it has signed an agreement to acquire pancake and waffle mix brand Birch Benders, deepening Sovos’ presence in the breakfast and snacking categories as it seeks to expand the brand’s distribution, marketing efforts and product offerings. The transaction is expected to close by the end of October.

Sovos president and CEO Todd Lachman said Sovos has reached a five-year consulting agreement with Birch Benders’ co-founders, CMO Lizzi Ackerman and CEO Matt LaCasse. The pair will still be “associated with the business, but not in the same leadership positions” they currently hold, according to Lachman.

Birch Benders is the fourth addition to Sovos’ portfolio, joining frozen meal brand Michael Angelo’s; sauce, soup and dried pasta brand Rao’s Homemade; and yogurt brand Noosa, its most recent acquisition in 2018.

Founded in 2011, Birch Benders markets keto and paleo-friendly pancake and waffle mixes along with frozen toaster waffles. Birch Benders, which previously took investment from Boulder Food Group, is available in over 15,000 retailers nationwide including Walmart, Target, Whole Foods and Safeway.

Lachman said he was introduced to Ackerman and LaCasse by Noosa co-founder Rob Graves, who sits on Sovos’ board of directors, and has been in talks with the brand for over a year. The company was attracted to the brand’s nutrient-dense, clean label ingredients, with SKUs that are “on trend,” catering to consumers’ “diverse dietary needs” such as paleo and keto. Moving forward, Sovos will seek to expand Birch Benders’ distribution and household penetration, which Lachman said is currently 3%, as well as extend the brand into new categories. In January it launched more indulgent items, including microwavable, low-carb cake, brownie and cookie cups and in 2019 debuted Magic Syrup, a keto and paleo maple syrup alternative. Though the latter is no longer listed on the company’s website.

Lachman said Sovos was founded with the goal to build a portfolio of insurgent “one-of-a-kind” brands, noting that “larger CPG [companies] know how to build billion dollar brands, but at times tend to stumble when it comes to smaller brands.” Lachman said brands in Sovos’ portfolio share resources in areas such as sales, R&D and marketing.

“Sovos is a growth thesis,” Lachman said. “We’re not a back-end supply synergy play. We look for brands that can leverage our growth-oriented capabilities. Do they play in the same channels? Do they leverage our ability to bring an untold story to life? Can we bring our innovation capabilities to bear?”

LaCasse said the sale will give Birch Benders the “opportunity to grow to its full potential” beyond its roots in pancakes.

“We’ve always seen ourselves as a brand that can really go in pretty much any aisle of the grocery store from the beginning,” Ackerman said. “What we had dreamt up for Birch Benders is becoming a platform brand and we’re excited to be joining the Sovos family so we can accomplish that.”

Ackerman noted that like Sovos’ other portfolio brands, Birch Benders wasn’t “started in a boardroom” but instead by “real founders,” and the brand thus shares many of the same values as Sovos and its portfolio brands.

Birch Benders was represented by Piper Sandler as financial advisor and Haynes and Boone LLP as legal advisor in the deal.