Ajinomoto to Purchase GranPac Frozen Food Operations

Ajinomoto U.S.A., Inc. (New York) has announced that it has finalized a stock purchase agreement with Showa Sangyo Co., Ltd. of Tokyo for GranPac Foods, Inc., a Portland, OR-based frozen food manufacturer. The purchase transfer for GranPac, a wholly owned subsidiary of Showa Sangyo, will be completed on June 30, 2000, and the new ownership will be a joint venture between Ajinomoto U.S.A., Inc. and its parent company, Ajinomoto Co., Inc, of Tokyo, Japan. The purchase price is $7.5 million.

"We believe acquiring an American manufacturing facility was essential," said Hiroshi Kurihara, president, Ajinomoto U.S.A., Inc., "to sustain and accelerate the rapid growth of our retail and food service frozen food products in the U.S. Only then could we reliably meet the growing demands of the domestic marketplace as well as guarantee the high standards of quality and service that our American customers have come to expect from Ajinomoto."

Ajinomoto U.S.A. has had a co-pack arrangement for frozen foods from GranPac since 1998 for its "Don" series of microwavable rice-bowl dishes and in-flight meals for airline caterers. With the purchase of GranPac, the company plans not only to accelerate growth of its American frozen food business, but also to export frozen food products using cost-competitive and high quality US food raw materials to Japan.

GranPac opened its Portland, OR, manufacturing facility in 1993. The 264,000-sqft production plant currently employs over 90 people. The company produces a variety of food products, including kettle, stir-fried/sauteed, fried, blanched and steamed foods. A variety of rice dishes are also made for the company's foodservice, retail and home meal replacement customers. Ajinomoto plans to maintain GranPac's current product line, and with the export sales of vegetable and meat products to Japan, projects annual sales growth of over 30% for the coming years.

"We have been looking for an opportunity to enhance and expand our new frozen food business in the U.S., and the GranPac plant matches our needs," said Tom Atwood, group VP, Food Div. of Ajinomoto U.S.A., Inc. "Our frozen food sales have doubled over the last three years and we plan to modernize GranPac's technology and expand its production capacity to sustain domestic growth and meet the needs of global markets."

The GranPac facility will be Ajinomoto U.S.A.'s third manufacturing facility in the U.S. Ajinomoto U.S.A. opened its first manufacturing facility in Raleigh, NC, in 1981 to produce amino acids. The company also maintains a monosodium glutamate production facility in Iowa.

Edited by Scott Hegenbart, Managing Editor, Food Ingredients Online