Houlihan Lokey Advises George Weston Limited

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that George Weston Limited has sold its Weston Foods ambient bakery business to affiliated entities of Hearthside Food Solutions, LLC (Hearthside), a portfolio company of Charlesbank Capital Partners, LLC (Charlesbank) and Partners Group, for aggregate cash consideration of C$370 million. The transaction closed on December 29, 2021.

The Weston Foods ambient business comprises a leading North American manufacturer, serving retail and foodservice customers with cookies, crackers, cones, and wafers in Canada and the United States.

George Weston Limited is a Canadian public company founded in 1882. The company operates through its three reportable operating segments: Loblaw Companies Limited, Choice Properties Real Estate Investment Trust, and Weston Foods. Loblaw provides Canadians with grocery, pharmacy, health and beauty, apparel, general merchandise, financial services, and wireless mobile products and services. Choice Properties owns, manages, and develops a high-quality portfolio of commercial retail, industrial, office, and residential properties across Canada. The Weston Foods operating segment includes a leading North American bakery that offers packaged bread and rolls in Canada as well as frozen and artisan bread and rolls, cakes, donuts, pies, biscuits, and alternatives throughout Canada and the United States.

Headquartered in Downers Grove, Illinois, Hearthside Food Solutions is a leading contract manufacturer and producer of baked foods, snacks, nutrition bars, and frozen, refrigerated, and fresh sandwiches/entrees as well as a full-service provider of food packaging services for many of the world’s premier brands. Prior to the Weston acquisition, Hearthside’s network included 37 food production facilities, including four in Europe, with a workforce of 12,000.

Based in Boston and New York, Charlesbank Capital Partners is a middle-market private investment firm with more than $15 billion of capital raised since inception. Charlesbank focuses on management-led buyouts and growth capital financings and also engages in opportunistic credit and technology investments. The firm seeks to build companies with sustainable competitive advantage and excellent prospects for growth.

Partners Group is a global private markets investment management firm with over $119 billion in investment programs under management in private equity, private real estate, private infrastructure, and private debt. The firm manages a broad range of customized portfolios for an international clientele of institutional investors. Partners Group is headquartered in Baar-Zug, Switzerland, and employs more than 1,500 employees across 20 offices worldwide. The firm is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (symbol: PGHN) with a major ownership by its partners and employees.

Houlihan Lokey acted as financial advisor to George Weston Limited and assisted in negotiating the transaction on its behalf.

This deal represents another successful transaction for Houlihan Lokey in the North American bakery sector following the sale of the Weston Foods fresh and frozen bakery businesses to FGF Brands, Dessert Holdings to Bain Capital, the North American business of ARYZTA AG to Lindsay Goldberg, Give & Go to Mondelēz, Venice Bakery to Rich Products, and C.H. Guenther & Son, Inc., to PPC Partners.