Cold Foods Industry News

Chefs' Warehouse Acquires Del Monte Meat Co.

The Chefs' Warehouse, Inc., a Ridgefield, Conn., distributor of specialty food products, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets and certain equity interests of Del Monte Capitol Meat Co., West Sacramento, Calif., and its affiliated companies for approximately $191.2 million.

Founded in 1926, Del Monte supplies high-quality, USDA-inspected beef, pork, lamb, veal, poultry and seafood products to Northern California. In addition, Del Monte's staff of highly-skilled butchers provide fresh, portion-controlled products on a fresh, cut-to-order basis. John DeBenedetti, principal and CEO of Del Monte, will join the company as executive vice president of protein.

"We are thrilled to welcome John and the Del Monte family to Chefs' Warehouse," says Chris Pappas, chairman and CEO of The Chefs' Warehouse. "Del Monte is a chef-driven, specialty protein company that believes in a high-quality, high-service model, very much like The Chefs' Warehouse. Del Monte's diverse customer base and extensive, experienced salesforce, along with their management's protein expertise, is a perfect fit and complement to our entire organization, as we expect them to strengthen and expand our center-of-the-plate offerings."

"On behalf of everyone at Del Monte, I would like to say that we are excited to join The Chefs' Warehouse team," says DeBenedetti. "We believe that joining The Chefs' Warehouse team will not only benefit our customers by substantially expanding the products we can offer them, but it will also create more opportunities for our employees as we grow together. I am also very excited to lead the Chefs' protein division and believe there is significant opportunity to add value as we build this best-in-class category."

Del Monte is expected to generate approximately $200-$225 million in annualized net sales in 2015. The transaction is expected to close near the end of the first quarter.