Cotton Creek Capital Acquires Sterling Foods


DALLAS, TX--(Marketwired - April 04, 2016) - Cotton Creek Capital is pleased to announce the acquisition of San Antonio, Texas-based Sterling Foods ("Sterling"), a food industry leader of specialty bakery products. The transaction closed on March 30, 2016 and financial terms were not disclosed. The investment by Cotton Creek Capital was made in partnership with Sterling's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, John D. Likovich.

About Sterling Foods

Founded in 1971, Sterling is a leading supplier of baked gourmet bakery items to the food industry. Sterling's products include a wide variety of specialty and gourmet baked products such as cakes, croissants, bagels, muffins, scones, and various specialty dessert items. Sterling is the largest supplier of shelf-stable bakery products to the U.S. Military and also provides products to nationally recognized restaurant chains throughout the country. Additionally, Sterling is a leading provider of baked goods to the weight management industry and also the K-12 educational market.

Since its humble beginnings, Sterling has grown and expanded while maintaining a commitment to its core customers in the shelf-stable baked goods market. Strategic acquisitions of Buena Vista Foods (2007) and Caravan Trading (2010) further expanded Sterling's customer base and distribution channels. Cotton Creek Capital believes the next phase of Sterling's growth will be driven by a continued focus on the gourmet national restaurant channel, geographic expansion of distribution in the educational market, new product offerings for military customers through an increased investment in research and development, and an investment in equipment and automation aimed at continuous operational improvement. Sterling has manufacturing facilities in San Antonio, Texas, Azusa, California and Union City, California. For more information on Sterling please visit www.sterling-fd.com.

About Cotton Creek Capital

Cotton Creek Capital is a Texas-based private equity firm focused on investing in and growing established lower middle market companies in manufacturing, value-added distribution, industrial, specialty chemical, business services, healthcare services and consumer staples. The firm invests in companies with enterprise values between $15 million and $200 million in transactions ranging from buyouts, recapitalizations, buy-and-builds to corporate divestitures. Cotton Creek Capital has offices in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin and is affiliated with Brownlie & Braden, LLC, a provider of financial advisory services to high net worth families for over 20 years. For further information, visit Cotton Creek's website at www.cottoncreekcapital.com.