Case Studies

Quad-C has partnered with dozens of owners and management teams to help build their companies through a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions.

COLLABORATING WITH GROWTH ORIENTED FOUNDERS

Cloverhill Bakery (“Cloverhill” or the “Company”) was a leading manufacturer and supplier of individually-wrapped, shelf stable sweet baked goods. Based in Chicago, Illinois, the Company grew from a local vending business in 1961, to a nationally recognized producer of branded and co-manufactured baked goods. Cloverhill’s product portfolio included fold-over and round danish, cinnamon rolls, honey buns, donuts, muffins, crumb cakes and cream-filled cakes. At the time of our exit, Cloverhill operated a modern, high volume manufacturing platform consisting of two world-class bakeries in the Chicago metropolitan area and sold its products through multiple channels including co-pack, grocery, vending, club, QSR and other retail outlets. Quad-C partnered with the owners in October 2009, two brothers who were third generation of the founding family, in a recapitalization transaction. The brothers were looking for partial liquidity but wanted to remain with the business as executives and substantial owners and therefore a growth oriented partner was important to them. Quad-C was attracted to the business as the founding family members had a tremendous track record and had proven their ability to add customers, improve the Company’s scale and profitability and penetrate new distribution channels.

EXECUTING THE STRATEGY

With the support of Quad-C, management executed the value creation plan which included:

  • Capacity expansion to meet customer demand – opened a new, world class bakery in Cicero, IL in late 2010 that reached full commercial scale in early 2012. The Company continued to invest throughout a period of softness in the baked goods industry, in contrast to many competitors; approximately $100 million in growth capital was deployed during our investment period.

  • Product line diversification – launched new product lines, including mini muffins and crumb cakes, and refreshed packaging.

  • Channel diversification ‒ added significant sales in retail, co-pack and QSR, thereby decreasing concentration in vending and club.

As a result, Cloverhill grew sales by more than 80% during Quad-C’s investment period.

EXIT

Given the company’s strong organic growth and product diversification, Quad-C sold the business to a strategic acquiror in March 2014.