INDIANAPOLIS, IN, February 7, 2024 – HKW, a middle-market private equity firm focused on growth-oriented companies, today announced its portfolio company, PANOS Brands, LLC (“PANOS”), a provider of branded consumer foods, has acquired certain assets of the Tessemae’s Salad Dressings & Condiments Business (“Tessemae’s”, tessemaes.com). Tessemae’s is a leading brand in refrigerated and shelf stable organic salad dressings. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“Tessemae’s offers a range of great tasting, organic salad dressings that consumers love. The products align with consumer interest in clean labels, and will be a great complement to our Walden Farms line of better-for-you salad dressings” said Darcy Zbinovec, CEO of PANOS Brands. “We’re excited to partner with Retailers to expand availability of Tessemae’s across markets to service the strong consumer interest in the dressings.” “We are excited to add Tessemae’s to our line-up of brands at PANOS,” said Mike Foisy, HKW’s President. “This continues our push to expand PANOS brand presence at retailers across the US.”

About PANOS brands

PANOS brands is a consumer food products company that manages a differentiated portfolio of shelf-stable and perishable specialty food brands across multiple categories and channels. PANOS is an acronym that precisely defines the company’s mission to offer Premium, Authentic, Natural, Organic, and Specialty foods throughout the world. True to its namesake — the ancient Greek word for torch — we like to think of our brands as a beacon for consumers who are increasingly demanding a wide spectrum of quality, better-for-you specialty foods. PANOS brands products can be found at most natural, specialty and traditional grocery stores nationwide.For more information, visit PANOSbrands.com.

About HKW

HKW is a middle-market private equity firm investing in companies with experienced management teams in the US and Canada. HKW targets companies in the Technology, Health & Wellness, and Business Services sectors. Since 1982, HKW has sponsored 69 platform transactions of middle-market companies throughout North America and 77 add-on acquisitions. For more information on HKW, please visit hkwinc.com.

Contact:
Jim Snyder
jcs@hkwinc.com
(317) 590-7401