SINGAPORE – Olam Food Ingredients, a business unit of Olam International, is acquiring Olde Thompson from the private equity firm Kainos Capital for approximately $950 million. Based in Oxnard, Calif., Olde Thompson is a private label manufacturer of dry spices and seasonings.

“This transaction builds on our long 15-year partnership with Olde Thompson and is a logical move to combine our ‘back-end’ strengths in global origination and sustainable supply chains, with Olde Thompson’s ‘front-end’ capabilities in providing retail spice solutions to many major US retailers,” said Anantharaman Shekhar, chief executive officer of Olam Food Ingredients. “Growing our offerings of private label solutions is right at the heart of OFI’s strategy — and within that spices is one of the most attractive and growing categories, especially in the US. This will enable us to offer consumers a comprehensive range of bold, authentic, natural taste and flavors with end-to-end traceability.”

Olde Thompson has manufacturing plants in Oxnard and Bayonne, NJ.

"The acquisition of Olde Thompson by Olam is a terrific outcome for all of our key stakeholders,” said David Sugarman, CEO of Olde Thompson. “For our customers, this partnership pushes Olde Thompson to the forefront of ESG (environmental, social and governance) as it provides access to Olam's extraordinary international sourcing capabilities and spice expertise that will allow us to provide a new level of traceability and transparency to the marketplace. Our employees will benefit from additional resources and opportunities that will accelerate our growth even further."

Kainos Capital acquired Olde Thompson in 2018. In 2020, it acquired Gel Spice, an importer and manufacturer of spices, seasonings and baking ingredients in New Jersey, and integrated it with Olde Thompson.

Other companies in Kainos’ portfolio include Nutrisystem, Kettle Cuisine, Ghirardelli, Florida Food Products and others.