Canada’s Premium Brands Holdings has wrapped up the year with another acquisition, snapping up US-based Stampede Culinary Partners.
Premium Brands is paying just shy of US$664m for the Bridgeview, Illinois-headquartered business, which specialises in the sous-vide cooking technique for meat and plant-based proteins.
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Starting in 1995 with beef and pork, Stampede has since expanded into poultry, prepared meals and vegetables produced at six US facilities and one in Canada, located in Cambridge, Ontario, according to its website.
Foodservice is Stampede’s primary customer channel but it also supplies retail, club stores, food distributors and military institutions.
Payment for the business is split into $512.5m in cash and $150m in shares of Premium Brands. Stampede will also be eligible for a $100m payout if it achieves set, but undisclosed, profitability targets in the next two years.
George Paleologou, the president and CEO of Premium Brands, said in a statement: “Over the past couple of years, we have made significant investments in production capacity to support the growth of our market-leading branded and customised cooked-protein initiatives in the US.
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By GlobalData“The acquisition of Stampede will further accelerate our growth in this market.”
Paleologou added the deal will provide “significant unused production capacity”, and bring in sous-vide capabilities.
Subject to competition approval, the transaction is expected to close by the end of January.
Stampede CEO Brock Furlong said: “We are very excited about joining the Premium Brands family and look forward to leveraging its resources and complementary production capabilities to accelerate the growth of our business.
“In particular, we see tremendous opportunities to sell many of the exciting, premium products produced by the Premium Brands ecosystem to our diverse portfolio of foodservice and emergent retail customers.”
Premium Brands said the acquisition will provide a mid-single-digit increase to its adjusted earnings per share over the first full year of ownership, rising to high-single digits including expected “synergies”.
Meanwhile, Premium Brands will part-fund the cash portion of the transaction through indirect share offers and bonds.
The company is selling US$325m of so-called public subscription receipts and US$108m of convertible notes, according to a separate presentation, while a further US$80m will be drawn from existing credit facilities.
Stampede is expected to generate $936m in revenue this year and $108m in adjusted EBITDA, along with net profit before tax of $17.9m, the presentation document showed.
Premium Brands has built up its revenue and profit base through M&A. Earlier this year, it announced the addition of Arizona-based premium sausage manufacturer Denmark Sausage, a deal struck for $21m.
Before last year wrapped up, the company revealed a trio of new deals – NSP Quality Meats, Casa Di Bertacchi and Italia Salami. The first two are based in the US and the third in Canada.
That same year, Premium Brands reported a 3.3% increase in revenue to C$6.47bn ($4.68bn today). Adjusted EBITDA rose 6.2% to C$593.7m but adjusted EPS dipped 1.2% to C$3.98.
In November, the company reported its year-to-date fiscal 2025 results for the nine months to 27 September.
Revenue was up almost 16% at C$5.58bn, while adjusted EBITDA was up 10.7% at C$492.7m. Adjusted EPS climbed 12% to C$3.28. Net profit, however, slid to C$28.8m from C$84.2m.
At the same time, Premium Brands tweaked its full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance lower to C$670-680m, compared to its previous outlook of C$680-700m.
