Shore Capital Partners has completed a recapitalization of Main Street Gourmet, a wholesale bakery based in Akron, Ohio. Main Street Gourmet provides frozen baked foods, including muffins, cookies, granola, brownies and bars, and other sweet goods to retail in-store bakery and specialty food service customers across the United States.
Shore Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in Chicago, plans to invest in the business development, sales and marketing, and production infrastructure of Main Street Gourmet. Opportunities will be explored for inorganic growth through acquisitions and for organic growth through adjacent product lines, customers and distribution channels.
“We could not be more excited to partner with the entire MSG team and look forward to creating a leading multi-regional bakery platform in the U.S. with a diverse range of high quality products, manufacturing capabilities and commitment to superior customer service,” says Richard Boos, partner at Shore Capital and chairman of Main Street Gourmet.
Steve Marks and Harvey Nelson, once college roommates, founded Main Street Gourmet, then known as Main Street Muffins, in 1987. The company’s name changed to Main Street Gourmet in 1997. The company now operates out of a 68,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and employs about 160 people in Akron.
“We are proud of the custom- and solutions-oriented bakery model we have built and scaled as a team and are excited to continue to serve our customers with a diverse range of high quality and differentiated products through a new phase of transformational growth,” said Mr. Nelson, chief executive officer of Main Street Gourmet. “Our partnership with Shore Capital will allow us to accelerate our organic growth through expanding on our product capabilities, serving additional retail I.S.B. (in-store bakeries) and specialty food service customers and broadening our footprint by pursuing acquisitions with other differentiated bakeries in adjacent categories and channels.”
Marks, formerly co-CEO of Main Street Gourmet, now will serve on the board of directors under the partnership with Shore Capital.
“I have high aspirations for what we can collectively accomplish alongside Shore Capital and am excited to partner with a group that understands our value proposition as a custom, value-added supply chain partner,” Marks says. “We continue to strive to be highly responsive with product development, able to commercialize new ideas in collaboration with our customers and maintain flexibility to work with unique ingredients and processes.”