Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh acquires La Boulangerie
Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh, a 27-unit, Denver-based Mediterranean fast casual concept announced its owners have acquired a majority equity interest in La Boulangerie, a popular, eight-unit, San Francisco-based bakery-café, which was originally founded by Pascal Rigo, later sold to Starbucks, and then sold back to Rigo most recently. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The deal comes on the heels of other changes at Garbanzo and La Boulangerie; namely, with the appointing of Larry Sidoti as chief development officer, and Gabriel Moreno as senior director of retail, respectively.
Focus Brands buys Jamba Juice
Focus Brands, operator of Schlotzky’s, Cinnabon, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Carvel, Auntie Anne’s, McAlister’s Deli and Seattle’s Best Coffee announced the buyout of Jamba Juice for $200 million. Focus Brands currently operates more than 5,000 restaurants, cafes, ice cream shoppes and bakeries in the U.S., Puerto Rico and over 50 foreign countries. Jamba, Inc., has more than 800 locations worldwide. “Benefiting from an extremely loyal customer base and strong franchise operators, Jamba Juice is one of the category leaders in the fast growing smoothie and juice category,” Steve DeSutter, CEO of Focus Brands Inc., said. “We are excited to welcome Jamba Juice with such an iconic heritage into our family of well-known and highly loved ’fan favorite’ brands.”
Imperial Dade acquires American Osment
The distributor of disposable foodservice and janitorial supplies acquired Birmingham-based American Osment, another distributor of janitorial, sanization, foodservice and office supply serving the northern Alabama region.
The Middleby Corporation acquires Taylor
The foodservice manufacturer further expanded its portfolio with the $1 billion buyout of the Taylor Company from UTC Climate, Controls & Security, a unit of United Technologies. Taylor, which will continue to operate from its existing facilities in Rockton, Illinois, is a manufacturer of foodservice equipment, namely soft-serve ice cream equipment.
Amelia Levin
Photo: Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh
