Private equity has long had a taste for consumer-packaged goods, but in recent years, its appetite for bakery and snacks has intensified. From artisan bakeries to frozen dessert specialists, the playground has become a buffet for financial investors looking for resilient, scalable and trend-aligned businesses.
Over the past five years, the global bakery and snacks manufacturing space has seen a noticeable uptick in PE acquisitions - many of them with transformative potential. According to Jeroen van den Heuvel, MD and head of European consumer investment for Oppenheimer & Co, 2024 was a “blowout” year for bakery M&A, something expected to continue this year.
“Ten years ago, I had this discussion with people who said baked goods, there’s little volume growth, it’s a mature category, it’s going nowhere. That opinion has proven completely wrong,” he said. “Ten years later, if you look at every single year, there’s been very robust growth and there’s been innovation. I think the category is resilient.”
It’s defying expectations by aligning with some of the biggest macro trends in consumer behaviour: health and wellness; on-the-go convenience; premium indulgence; and multicultural flavour exploration. These consumer shifts, combined with a highly fragmented supply base, have opened the door wide for PE firms seeking to build scale, extract efficiencies and eventually exit with healthy returns.
Big bites & bigger ambitions
Earlier this year, One Equity Partners (OEP) announced its acquisition of CraftMark Bakery, an Indianapolis-based frozen bakery manufacturer that operates a 225,000 square foot facility with seven production lines to output 500 million pounds of annual capacity. It’s a textbook PE target: high-output, business-to-business, reliable revenue streams and room for bolt-on growth. The deal gives OEP a strategic foothold in North American manufacturing.
“The North American frozen bakery space is a large, growing, and fragmented market in which OEP has previous experience,” said OEP partner Joseph Huffsmith. “Our investment in CraftMark presents an opportunity to participate in the attractive foodservice and instore bakery segments each with considerable growth potential.”
Added OEP VP Haley Citrome, “We look forward to working with CraftMark to support and grow its blue-chip customer base and expand service offerings through strategic M&A and continued investment into the base operations.”
CraftMark isn’t the only bakery name to make headlines over the past 18 months
In May 2024, Encore Consumer Capital acquired Chalet Desserts, a California-based manufacturer of frozen premium desserts for the foodservice industry. In January 2024, Stellex Capital Management bought J Skinner Baking, a Nebraska-based pastry producer known for its sweet rolls and Danishes.
The biggest deal in the space came in September 2024, when Platinum Equity and Butterfly Equity acquired Minnesota-based Rise Baking Company for $2.5 billion. Other noteworthy activity includes La Lorraine Bakery Group’s June 2024 acquisition of a 50% stake in Bakery de France, a deal backed by PE to expand its North American footprint; Swander Pace Capital and partners December 2023 buy into Canada’s St-Méthode Bakery; and Bansk/Mayfair’s purchase of Ireland’s Pat the Baker and Irish Pride in 2024.
The savoury snacks segment has likewise seen major action, including PE roll-ups. Such as France’s Europe Snacks, a leading private label salty snacks manufacturer, acquired by One Rock Capital, which is betting on global snack demand. In the US, Shearer’s Foods, a large contract manufacturer of salty snacks, has undergone several ownership changes between investment firms in recent years.
This pattern - strategic geographic expansion; a focus on operational excellence; and a nose for consumer trends - has come to define PE’s courtship of the baking and snacking world.
What’s fuelling the snackland grab?
The US remains the epicentre of much of this activity, with 77 F&B deals recorded in Q4 2023 versus 51 across all other regions combined. It’s a hotbed for consolidation, thanks to its fragmented supply base and rich vein of regional bakeries.
Europe isn’t far behind. Belgium’s Vandemoortele and La Lorraine Bakery Group both recently invested in US operations (the former acquiring Banneton Bakery and the latter partnering with Bakery de France). European PE funds such as France’s PAI Partners, the UK’s CapVest and Sweden’s Nordic Capital are also actively investing in bakery and snacks businesses. Food giants like Ferrero, Nestlé and Mondelez continue to expand via acquisitions, including Ferrero’s 2023 buyout of Nonni’s Biscotti in the US from a private equity owner.
Asia-Pacific has seen comparatively fewer blockbuster deals, but interest is growing. Everyone wants a slice of the bakery boom, with global players like Mondelez acquiring China’s premium cake brand Evirth in 2023 to capture explosive demand in the region. Latin America is also in play: in 2022, Peru’s leading cookie maker was acquired by a Chilean PE firm, while Grupo Bimbo continues to expand regionally through acquisitions. Peak Rock’s Ziyad Brothers - which is focused on Middle Eastern baked goods - is another example of regional trend alignment with PE appetite.
And then there are the plays that don’t fit the typical mould. In September 2024, Tailwind Concessions - backed by Palladin Consumer Retail Partners - acquired four Panera Bread airport concessions from Kind Hospitality, including operations at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. While not a traditional CPG acquisition, the move reflects a growing trend of PE and investment-backed firms seeking control over vertically integrated food experiences. It’s a foot in the door to a captive audience and a unique slice of the foodservice-meets-retail intersection.
The ingredients for a perfect deal
Part of the attraction is simple economics. Emerging markets are displaying double-digit snack growth, a rising middle class and increasing interest in Western-style baked goods - creating fertile ground for well-funded entrants. Branded packaged bakery and snack items have long shelf lives, strong pricing power and resilient demand, making them an ideal platform for value creation. Unlike fresh bakery, which has shorter shelf life and higher spoilage risk, packaged bakery benefits from national distribution, retail partnerships and scalable marketing.
But there’s more to the story than just stable margins. Health trends are also driving the gold rush. PE firms are targeting brands aligned with gluten-free, plant-based, keto and allergen-free diets. The acquisition of Simple Mills by Flowers Foods for nearly $800 million is a prime example - though a strategic buyer ultimately closed the deal, the brand’s early momentum came from PE backing.
PE firms are increasingly backing early-stage better-for-you brands, scaling them and then exiting to larger food conglomerates that crave innovation without the R&D risk. Even indulgent categories are in play. Dessert Holdings - backed by Bain Capital - has become a platform for assembling premium cake, brownie and cheesecake brands. Chalet Desserts, now under Encore Consumer Capital’s wing, is expected to bolt on more regional dessert producers.
Bake-off: the new rules of competition
Consolidation is creating bakery and snack giants with deep pockets, greater bargaining power and wide distribution. Rise Baking Company’s trajectory - from regional player to top five US supplier - demonstrates how acquisition-fuelled growth changes the game (10 since 2013). Pritzker Private Capital has followed a similar strategy, consolidating bakery assets under its CH Guenther & Son banner while seeking specialty add-ons.
These dynamics put pressure on independent brands, who now face competitors with deep war chests, sophisticated marketing and premium shelf placement. In response, many are preparing for sale or actively courting investors.
That said, PE is driving much-needed capital investment in automation and food safety. The M&A wave is also fostering innovation as companies seek to differentiate their expanded portfolios and justify their acquisitions. Consumers are likely to benefit from a faster rollout of novel snacks - whether that’s healthier formulations, flavour mashups or new formats.
Globalisation is another shift: brands like Nature’s Bakery (now under Mars’ Kind) and Tyrrells Chips (now owned by Hershey) have expanded well beyond their home markets, thanks to PE or strategic buyers.
Most analysts agree the trend will continue through 2025. Stabilising interest rates are reopening the door to leveraged deals and there’s no shortage of capital. ‘Dry powder’ (unspent capital) among mid-market PE funds remains high and investors are actively hunting for stable categories with growth potential.
The recent announcement of fresh tariffs by US President Donald Trump could influence how these deals are structured. Higher import costs for packaging, ingredients or machinery may push PE firms to invest in domestic production capabilities or even prompt a reshoring of operations. For heavily automated facilities like CraftMark, this makes vertical control a strategic imperative.
Consumer preferences, too, are still evolving and investors see an ongoing pipeline of opportunity - especially in plant-based bakery, premium indulgence, functional nutrition snacks and multicultural baked goods. If a brand checks two or more of those boxes and has a modest national presence, it’s probably already on someone’s radar.
PE is baking a new future for the bakery and snacks world. Whether that future will be more efficient, more innovative - or simply more consolidated - remains to be seen. But the dough is rising and private equity wants a bigger slice.
