Take-And-Bake-Pizza Business To Be Headquartered In Romeoville

ROMEOVILLE, IL — Romeoville will soon be home to the headquarters of Great Kitchens Food Company Inc. that has recently acquired ARYZTA, North America’s take-and-bake pizza business.

Great Kitchens will be headquartered in Romeoville and will continue to operate a 165,000 square feet crust manufacturing facility in Chicago Heights, and a 155,000 square feet topping plant in Romeoville. The facilities employ approximately 700 employees.

Great Kitchens is the market leader in private label take-and-bake pizza. The Company’s delicious pizzas and flat breads are sold to grocery, club and mass retailers, as well as into food service outlets nationally. Admir Basic will be Great Kitchen's president and Bill Steckel will join Great Kitchens as its CFO.

"We are thrilled to announce the creation of Great Kitchens," said Henk Hartong III, chairman and CEO of Brynwood Partners. "We are excited to return to the private-label pizza space with this new investment. Our prior investment in the private label frozen pizza space with Richelieu Foods, Inc. was very successful, and we are confident in the prospects for Great Kitchens. We look forward to bringing a significant level of investment in new products and recipe innovations to our retail partners through our best-in-class facilities."

Great Kitchens is Brynwood Partners' newly-formed portfolio company. With this acquisition, Brynwood Partners has now acquired 56 brands from 21 different corporate sellers.

"On behalf of Brynwood Partners, I would like to sincerely thank the ARYZTA team for being such great partners on this carveout. This is the first deal we have done together, and we look forward to continuing our relationship," said Ian MacTaggart, president, CFO and COO of Brynwood Partners.