First Posted: 2/9/2015
DELPHOS — Lakeview Farms will soon offer seafood dips and spreads thanks to a new, major business transaction.
Lakeview Farms has been bought out by a former investor, said the dips and desserts retailer’s president and CEO Gene Graves.
The same investment company, Sequel Holdings, has also purchased another food retailer, Future Food Brands, and has plans to combine the two companies, under Lakeview Farm’s name.
Graves announced Monday that Sequel Holdings, a Dallas, Texas-based investment company, acquired the company Dec. 19. Despite the transaction, the company name and image will remain the same with the addition of some Future Food Brand products.
“Sequel knows our company, our products and our management team very well,” Graves said. “We have a history of working well together and have forged a relationship built on mutual trust and respect.”
As far as the employees at the company, “there are no changes,” Graves said. “Obviously we had a lot that was going on with our plant consolidation project and they’re fully in support of that.”
A consolidation plan has been in place since the spring that will ultimately close the company’s Wisconsin location and bring more than 40 positions to Delphos.
During the past three years, Lakeview Farms has tried to purchase Future Food Brands three times, Graves said.
“We just couldn’t quite ever put it together,” he said.
Future Food Brands offers seafood dips, something consumers have been asking for for awhile Graves said.
“It’s a part of our arsenal that we’ve been missing,” he added.
Sequel Holdings officials did not return phone calls for comment Monday afternoon.
