Greenwich investment firm expands pizza empire with Miracapo acquisition
Eighteen months after acquiring Uno’s frozen pizza lineup, a Greenwich private equity investment firm has bought Miracapo Pizza Co., adding another Chicago-area pizza vendor to its lineup. That roster includes a familiar pizza pie in Connecticut supermarkets and nationally: Newman’s Own.
Brynwood Partners did not state what it paid for Miracapo Pizza Co., which produces both traditional pizza and glutenfree varieties with cauliflowerbased crusts for other companies. Miracapo also provides takeout pizza to a major convenience store chain the company has not identified by name.
Founded in 1984 with a name derived from Italian words for focused and leader, Miracapo Pizza Co. has 385 employees at a trio of Illinois production facilities, with its headquarters in Elk Grove Village, northwest of Chicago.
The company estimates it produced more than a billion pizzas over the past decade under the labels of other companies. That includes Newman’s Own, according to data on file with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Westportbased nonprofit which donates a portion of its proceeds to charity.
Brynwood sells Uno Foods pizzas under a parent company called Great Kitchens Food based in Romeoville, Illinois, southwest of Chicago. Brynwood was a prior owner of Richelieu Foods based in Wheeling, Illinois, which packages frozen pizza for sale at supermarkets.
“Chicago has always been at the center of the food business,” said Brynwood Partners CEO Henk Hartong III on Tuesday morning. “There just happens to be a lot of pizza manufacturing businesses in Chicago, ... so it’s a good place for us to operate.”
Other big players include Nestle which owns the DiGiorno, California Pizza Kitchen and Tombstone brands of frozen pizza among others. And smaller companies sell frozen pizzas in Connecticut supermarkets inspired by local pizzerias, including Zuppardi’s Apizza and 850 Frozen in Brookfield.
The Miracapo deal occurred during an ongoing U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration case, after OSHA notified Miracapo of its intent to fine the company $2.8 million after the 2022 death of a temporary worker who used a compressed air machine to clean a pizza conveyer while it was operating. Hartong said he could not comment on the case as it remains an open OSHA investigation.
On the heels of the Miracapo buy, Brynwood has 4,700 employees across 19 production facilities for Great Kitchens, Carolina Beverage Group, Harvest Hill Beverage, Hometown Food and West Madison Foods. Harvest Hill is based in Stamford and Carolina Beverage in Mooresville, North Carolina, with the rest having corporate offices in Illinois.
Hartong said Brynwood is considering selling one of its holding companies in the coming year, without identifying it by name. Past Brynwood portfolio companies include Balance Bar, Buitoni, DeMet’s, and shampoo and soap company High Ridge Brands based in Westport today.