The Business Journal’s inaugural list of food and beverage suppliers based in Orange County shows an industry that notched a 5% increase to more than $16 billion in revenue last year.
The 37 companies on the list employ nearly 3,000 in Orange County and 45,000 companywide.
They range from No. 1, Golden State Foods Corp., with $7.3 billion in revenue, to No. 37, Healthy Coffee International Inc. in Yorba Linda, with $401,825 in sales.
Golden State Foods, led by Chief Executive Mark Wetterau, supplies foodstuffs to the likes of McDonald’s Corp., Starbucks Corp. and Yum Brands Inc., among other restaurant and food-service giants.
Healthy Coffee’s shares trade for a tenth of a penny on the OTC Markets, and it sells a network marketing-based line of coffees infused with ginseng, along with a powdered energy drink, according to its website.
The total revenue of food and beverage suppliers based here is likely higher than the $16 billion total represented by the list. A number of companies provided data for the list, while we relied on estimates for others. Absent are at least five companies—SnackHealthy Inc. in Newport Beach, CJ Foods Inc. in La Palma, Langlois Foods Inc. in Laguna Beach, Penjoyan Produce in Costa Mesa, and Sanyo Foods Corp. of America in Garden Grove—known to have significant sales. None of those companies provided data, however, and our research fell short of the threshold needed to justify an estimate.
Wine, Bread
Food companies in Orange County make or distribute nearly anything to anyone living almost anywhere in the world—milk and meat, fruits and vegetables, Japanese-style noodles and Korean Gochujang hot pepper paste, and so on.
Among them are:
• No. 2-ranked Young’s Market Co., which distributes wine, beer and spirits in 10 Western states and brings in some $3.2 billion a year;
• No. 5, MegaMex Foods LLC, at $600 million in revenue. It makes and markets fresh, frozen and other Mexican-style foods in the U.S. (see story, page 1);
• No. 13, West Coast Prime Meats LLC, supplies $83 million worth of meat and fish to restaurants including The Cannery and Red O, both in Newport Beach;
• No. 31, OC Baking Co. bakes about $4 million worth of bread a year. It recently expanded its production space in Orange. Founder Dean Kim expects about $5.5 million this year.
Some companies supply food “from their table to ours” and are family-owned or run.
Father and son Wally Barakat and Alex Barakat founded No. 26, SunRich Foods International Corp., in Anaheim in 1995, finding a niche with food products for theme parks and restaurants. The company had $8 million in revenue last year.
Quirks & History
Several produce distributors are the latest outgrowth from OC’s history as an agricultural center.
Many others—again in line with the area’s history—offer food products that harken to Orange County’s ethnic populations: rice, beans, salsa and noodles.
There’s even an importer of bird’s nests—No. 33, Menara Persada Abadi Inc., at $2 million in revenue. Its product is used in teas and soups. Another quirky entry is No. 35, Avant Garde Imports Inc., at $1 million, which markets alcohol-infused tea.
A couple of entries get their sales in one of the newer categories of the beverage business.
Two energy drink makers—No. 8, XS Sports Nutrition, in Laguna Beach with $170 million in revenue and No. 28, Positive Energy Beverages LLC, in Irvine with an estimated $5 million.
Acquisitions
Four companies have been acquired within the last 18 months but maintain their operations in OC:
• No. 4 Nature’s Best, was bought by KeHe Distributors LLC in Naperville, Ill;
• No. 7, Sunrise Growers, was bought by SunOpta Inc. in Toronto;
• No. 27, Avanzar, is now majority-owned by a subsidiary of Minerco Resources Inc. in Houston;
• XS Sports Nutrition was bought by Amway Corp. in Ada, Mich;
A fifth company may be on the block.
Reuters reported in October that milk and juice marketer Stremicks Heritage Foods LLC in Santa Ana—tied for No. 5 with $600 million in revenue—“is exploring a sale that it hopes could value it at more than $1 billion … [and] hired investment bank Houlihan Lokey Inc. to run an auction for the company.”
It said Stremicks earned about $120 million before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
