Charting foodmakers in Orange County is like nailing Jell-O to the wall—given that the powdered gelatin, an early patent of which predates the 1889 formal founding of OC by 44 years, is possibly the only edible substance someone isn’t making locally.
The Business Journal list this week of food and beverage suppliers ranked by employee count, presents a snapshot of an industry that generally won’t sit still long enough to have its picture taken.
OC’s environs are home to comestible companies involved in everything from milk and meat to seaweed snacks and acai drinks to chips and dips. In line with the county’s history and reputation, we’ve got a major Mexican foodmaker and supplier, as well as a yogurt company. There’s water, candy, dessert, veggies, beer and bread. Soup to nuts—again, literally, as long as ramen counts as soup and edamame counts as nuts.
You can serve an entire meal from the food these OCers make and deliver.
For the McDonald’s or Starbucks run when a home-cooked meal isn’t on the menu, Irvine-based No. 9 Golden State Foods Corp. in Irvine, with about $7 billion a year in sales and 130 workers, has it covered.
Consider listed firms then a simple glance askance as surely some have eluded a steady gaze in such a vibrant eats environment.
Got Milk
OC’s got milk.
It can market it, too.
But leaving aside California Milk Processor Board in San Clemente, there’s No. 5 Stremicks Heritage Foods LLC in Santa Ana, with an estimated 250 employees and $464 million in revenue. Reuters reported in 2015 that Stremicks was looking to sell the formerly family-owned dairy processor, which the news agency said had about $120 million in EBITDA. Texas-based Dean Foods Co. (NYSE: DF) was floated as a possible buyer.
A deal never emerged and in January Kansas City-based co-op Dairy Farmers of America bought the 53% of Stremicks it didn’t own, bundling it with the buy of a smaller milk producer for a combined value of $1.1 billion, according to Moody’s Investors Service in New York.
Meat Market
Two quite different OC protein providers are on the list: No. 19 Bridgford Foods Corp. (Nasdaq: BRID) in Anaheim and No. 6 West Coast Prime Meats LLC in Brea.
The former makes frozen meat patties among other products and has seen its shares—despite being thinly traded and majority-controlled by a family-owned entity—triple over the last three years to a $210 million market cap.
The latter’s the latest venture of longtime local entrepreneurs Craig Nickoloff and Bill Hustedt—co-founders of the Claim Jumper Restaurant chain, which the duo started in 1977 and sold 28 years later for about $220 million.
West Coast provides top quality meat to restaurants and hotels—its buyers make regular personal visits to Midwest ranches—and annual revenue rose 24% last year to $144 million.
L’chaim!
Health is kind of a big deal locally—remember the old California straight line about it being the “granola” state? OK, so the punchline wasn’t meant kindly, but truth is the county’s got nutrition coming out of its ears:
• No. 11 Yakult USA Inc., in Fountain Valley, makes yogurt-like probiotic drinks
• No. 17 Sambazon in San Clemente is responsible for a line of “superfruit” and acai products
• No. 32 True Drinks Holdings Inc. in Irvine sells water—“no one’s ever lost a tooth from us” the old Schoolhouse Rock jingle went—backed by local investor Vinny Smith and his Toba Capital
• No. 1 Maruchan Inc. in Irvine makes soup; No. 24 Seapoint Farms in Huntington Beach makes edamame products
• Thank No. 3 Ventura Foods LLC in Brea and No. 20 Laura Scudder’s Co. in Santa Ana for dips and chips, respectively.
Various iterations of fruits and vegetables and derivatives are made or delivered by No. 6 Ingardia Brothers Produce Inc. in Santa Ana, No. 13 Family Tree Produce Inc. and No. 21 SunRich Foods International Corp., each in Anaheim; and No. 27 Seawind Foods in San Clemente.
No. 30 Leaf Brands LLC in Newport Coast, despite its agriculturally aspirational name, doesn’t deal in cabbages: it’s a classic candy and cookie maker of legacy names like Hydrox, surpassed several decades ago by Oreo. Leaf Chief Executive Ellia Kassoff in August filed an $800 million Federal Trade Commission complaint against Mondelez International, owners of Oreo, for allegedly denying Hydrox shelf space in grocery stores.
New to the list this year: No. 4 Reyes Beer Division in Huntington Beach, No. 23 Good Culture LLC in Irvine, No. 28 Massey Honey Co. in Yorba Linda, and No. 31 Infinity Sauces in Fullerton.
Pop Parts
All this makes OC a popular place for industry confabs and the occasional food company acquisition.
No. 8 Stir Foods LLC in Orange is the result of Chicago private equity firm Wind Point Partners buying two SoCal companies in 2017 and mixing them together. No. 12 Illinois-based KeHe Distributors’ local operations in Placentia is the result of its 2014 acquisition of Nature’s Best.
No. 16 MegaMex Foods LLC in Orange is a $750 million joint venture of Hormel and Mexico-based Herdez del Fuerte, which makes and sells Mexican-style foods across the price spectrum—convenience stores to specialty outlets.
Industry attention on the area is best-repped by Natural Products Expo West hitting Anaheim Convention Center this week: it’s the second-largest show at the campus and filled to the rim with food companies, including locals.
