Industry News

Highlander Partners
Dallas-based private investment firm Highlander Partners has acquired the intellectual property, trademarks and associated licensing agreements for 10 chocolate and sugar confectionery brands from Huhtamäki Oyj, a global food and beverage packaging company headquartered in Espoo, Finland. Brands involved in the transaction include Jolly Rancher, Payday, Whoppers, Heath, Milk Duds, Sixlets, Good & Plenty, Zero, Chuckles and Good & Fruity. 

Oberto Brands
Oberto Brands is being acquired by Premium Brands Holdings for about $188 million.

Coffee Holding Co.
Coffee Holding Co., Inc. has acquired all of the assets of Steep N Brew Coffee Company through Generations Coffee Company LLC, the company’s specialty coffee joint venture in Ohio.

BRC Global
BRC Global Standards has acquired the Allergen Control Group, Inc., owner and operator of the Gluten-Free Certification Program, the food industry’s only ISO 17021-accredited management system certification scheme for gluten-free food manufacturing facilities.

Dorner
Dorner Holding Company, the parent company of Dorner Mfg. Corp., FlexMove and Geppert-Band GmbH is merging the three entities into one consolidated brand known as Dorner.

Grace Engineered Products
Grace Engineered Products has acquired Civionics—the creators of Percēv IIoT predictive sensing technology. 

Gray Construction
Design-build firm Gray Construction has acquired InLine Engineers, an engineering and design solutions firm for the food and beverage industry.

Processing Technologies
Processing Technologies International LLC, a global manufacturer of high-performance sheet extrusion machinery, has opened its Technology Development Center, a demonstration center that is dedicated to product development and process trials for customers on production-scale systems.

People News

WinCo
The WinCo board appointed Grant Haag, who most recently was WinCo’s senior VP of department operations, as the new president of the company. Haag will take over as CEO when current CEO, Steven Goddard, officially steps down.

Sconza
Sconza Candy Company has named Kurt Thorsen as VP of sales.

Teton Waters Ranch
Teton Waters Ranch, a producer of 100 percent grass-fed beef products, has named Mike Murray as CEO.

Dynamic Conveyor
Dynamic Conveyor Corporation named Andrew Hartline as sales manager.

Ibberson
Ibberson, an EPC firm based in Minnesota, has named Ed Mihelin as business line manager and Greg Cherok as a senior business development manager, both in the food and beverage market.

True Citrus
True Citrus has named Robert Cuddihy as its new CEO. Cuddihy, who previously served as chief operating officer for True Citrus, is replacing the retiring Albert Soricelli, who led the company for the past 
eight years.

Somic America
Somic America has added two associates to its service department, Alfredo Avila and Michael Kurtz.