Livingstone completes §363 sale of leading food contract manufacturer
Livingstone is pleased to announce the sale of Arro Corporation (“Arro” or the “Company”) to an affiliate of Mount Franklin Foods, LLC. The sale was consummated pursuant to §363 of Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. Livingstone acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Arro.
Founded in 1986, Arro operates two divisions, food processing and ingredients. Arro’s food processing division, headquartered in Hodgkins, Illinois, is a leading food contract manufacturer, specializing in product development and packaging solutions for the bake mix, powdered beverage, ingredient, and cereal, trail mix, and nut categories. Arro’s ingredients division, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, operates a dedicated bulk ingredient blending and transfer facility, which provides large format handling and storage solutions for a wide array of food and food ingredient companies. The Company will be renamed Element Food Solutions, LLC and will operate as an independent business unit under the Mount Franklin Foods parent organization.
Mount Franklin Foods, headquartered in El Paso, Texas, is a leading North American manufacturer of high-quality confections, nut products, mints, culinary plant-based proteins, bake mixes, powdered beverages, and ingredients. Mount Franklin Foods serves major retailers, wholesalers, co-manufacturing customers, and foodservice distributors through its Sunrise Confections, Azar Nut, and Hospitality Mints divisions.
“With the Company filing for Chapter 11 protection on December 13, 2019 and the transaction closing on March 13, 2020, Arro illustrates another example of Livingstone’s ability to get a challenging transaction successfully completed in a tight timeframe,” said Joseph Greenwood, Special Situations Partner at Livingstone.
Livingstone has extensive experience advising middle-market companies through M&A, financing, and balance sheet restructuring transactions during periods of underperformance, distress, and insolvency.
Other professionals for Arro include Andrews Advisory Group, LLC as restructuring advisor, Adelman & Gettleman Ltd as debtor counsel, and MorrisAnderson & Associaties, Ltd as independent director.
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