Heritage Foodservice Acquired By Private Equity Firm

New ownership is at the helm of Heritage Foodservice Group, the country’s largest distributor of OEM and repair parts for the foodservice equipment industry. Windjammer Capital Investors, in partnership with the Heritage management team, has acquired the Fort Wayne, Ind., business from The Jordan Co., which had owned Heritage since 2011. Full terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

In the past few years, Heritage has built a coast-to-coast aftermarket-repair network in Canada through its acquisitions there of equipment part distributors Choquette CKS, Key Food Equipment Services Ltd., and R.G. Henderson & Son Ltd.

Windjammer, a private equity firm with offices in Newport Beach, Calif., and Waltham, Mass., already has experience in the foodservice equipment industry; it currently owns Component Hardware Group, a supplier of foodservice plumbing products.

“Heritage provides a critical link between OEMs and a highly fragmented customer base that relies on it to deliver mission critical parts on an expedited basis in support of an urgent break-fix business environment,” said Greg Bondick, Managing Director at Windjammer, who led the transaction for the firm.  “Heritage’s breadth and depth of inventory combined with a 98+% same-day shipment of in-stock items have helped it create a market leadership position in the industry.”

Heritage CEO John McDonough said, “Windjammer is an ideal partner for this next stage in the company’s development. The resources Windjammer provides, and its successful track record of working with portfolio companies and management teams to create value for their investors, makes us confident that we will be able to execute on our growth plans.”