Houlihan Lokey Advises Mid America Pet Food

Houlihan Lokey's Consumer, Food & Retail Group is pleased to announce that Mid America Pet Food, LLC (Mid America), a portfolio company of Trinity Hunt Partners (Trinity Hunt), has been acquired by TA Associates (TA). Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction closed on December 16, 2020.

This deal represents the second successful transaction for Houlihan Lokey in the pet food sector in the past three months.

Mid America Pet Food is a major, U.S.-based, channel-leading manufacturer and marketer of branded, super-premium pet food. Founded in 2007, Mid America goes to market under the VICTOR and Eagle Mountain brands, which both offer reliable, high-quality pet nutrition at common-sense values. VICTOR’s super premium dog food formulas have been nationally recognized and are a trusted nutrition source for pet owners across the country, including outdoor enthusiasts, hunters, trainers, and breeders. Based in the agricultural center of East Texas, Mid America’s strategic location allows for local sourcing of key ingredients and efficient distribution to customers with national scale.

Trinity Hunt Partners is a growth-oriented middle-market private equity firm focused on building founder- and family-owned growth businesses into market leaders. Since its inception, Trinity Hunt has raised funds with aggregate capital commitments of approximately $775 million. Trinity Hunt has earned a reputation for working effectively with entrepreneurs to provide strategic, operational, and financial expertise to help elevate its companies to the next level of success. The Trinity Hunt team has a successful track record of investing in more than 60 platform companies over the firm’s 27-year history.

TA Associates is a leading global growth private equity firm. Focused on targeted sectors within five industries—technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer, and business services—TA invests in profitable, growing companies with opportunities for sustained growth and has invested in more than 500 companies around the world. Investing as either a majority or minority investor, TA employs a long-term approach, utilizing its strategic resources to help management teams build lasting value in high-quality growth companies. TA has raised $33.5 billion in capital since its founding in 1968 and is committing to new investments at the pace of more than $3 billion per year. The firm’s more than 100 investment professionals are based in Boston, Menlo Park, London, Mumbai, and Hong Kong.