Funds advised by SK Capital Partners, a private investment firm focused on the specialty materials, ingredients and life sciences sectors, completed the previously announced acquisition of J&K Ingredients from CORE Industrial Partners. KeyBanc Capital Markets, Kayne Anderson Private Credit and Benefit Street Partners provided debt financing to support the acquisition.
J&K Ingredients, headquartered in Paterson, NJ, is a provider of food and beverage ingredients solutions with an emphasis on natural, organic and clean label products. The company developed Bred-Mate, a natural mold inhibitor for the bakery industry, more than four decades ago and provides a suite of specialty ingredients, such as egg and milk replacements, emulsions, flavors, and bread bases to the bakery market today. In 2019, the company launched SOR-Mate, a high-efficacy clean label alternative to potassium sorbate for use across a range of product categories, including bakery, beverages, snacks, pet food and dairy.
“Clean label food preservation technologies are an increasingly important pillar of sustainability by reducing food waste and the associated environmental footprint, and J&K has already established itself as a critical, value-added clean label partner to its bakery customers,” Mario Toukan, managing director of SK Capital Partners, said. “We feel privileged to play a part in bringing clean label preservative solutions to the broader food and beverage industry with SOR-Mate, as well as in building out a more comprehensive suite of natural and clean label solutions as we embark on J&K’s next phase of growth.”
“SK Capital has significant experience investing in ingredients businesses, and we believe J&K represents a tremendous opportunity to create a leading clean label ingredients platform,” Dan Lory, principal at SK Capital Partners, said. “We are thrilled to be partnering with the J&K team to build upon the company’s stellar reputation and technical achievements to-date.”
“At J&K, we are very excited for our next chapter in partnership with SK Capital,” Ricardo Alvarez, Ph.D., CEO of J&K Ingredients, said. “We look forward to continuing to provide best-in-class service to our customers while enhancing our commercial strategy and clean label product portfolio.”
