Spanish Co-Manufacturer Sets Roots In U.S., Acquires Fresca Foods

Spanish food company Cerealto has acquired Boulder, Colo., natural foods manufacturer Fresca Foods, establishing its first U.S. foothold. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Cerealto will take a controlling stake in Fresca Foods, while the Colorado-based leadership team will continue to manage day-to-day operations at the U.S. facilities.

“With around 20% of our sales set to come from the U.S. through this partnership, this is a transformative step for Cerealto,” Cerealto CEO Bosco Fonts said in a statement. “The U.S. organic snacking category is already valued at around $32 billion and is projected to grow at more than 6% annually, so this is a huge opportunity to expand our footprint globally.”

The European producer already operates 10 facilities (six in Spain, two in the U.K., one in Portugal and one in Mexico). Cerealto specializes in private-label and co-manufactured biscuits, cereals and snack bars, predominantly for the E.U. and U.K. markets.

Founded in 1989, Fresca Foods operates 350,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space across two production facilities and two logistics and warehouse centers. The company specializes in co-manufacturing snack bars, granola, breakfast cereals, crackers and cookies with over 18 individual production lines. The company also has hot-fill processing and packaging capabilities for beverage drink pods.

Fresca Foods has incubated various brands over the years. In 2015, the company acquired Sejoyia Foods and helped usher in a rebrand and expansion into coconut cookies for the sweet snack business. In 2017, Fresca Foods also invested $3.4 million in fellow Denver-based cracker brand 34 Degrees.

The deal is about “acceleration and continuity,” wrote Fresca Foods in a LinkedIn post, bringing “fresh investment, expanded capabilities, and capacity to strengthen our supply chain and better serve our customers.”