Huron Capital Partners LLC has agreed to buy coffee distributor International Blends as an add-on acquisition for portfolio company Ronnoco Coffee LLC.
Terms of the deal remain undisclosed.
According to Huron, the deal allows St Louis, Mo.-based Ronnoco to grow in its core market and expand across the state into Jefferson City where International Blends is headquartered.
International Blends, like Ronnoco, delivers coffee to stores, offices and restaurants, in addition to stocking vending machines.
Ronnoco, purchased by Huron in September for an undisclosed price, was the Detroit private equity firm’s 60th investment. (See “Private Equity Pros to Watch: Gretchin Perkins.”)
Huron recently closed a $500 million fund, Huron Fund IV — its biggest to date. Huron is also among a handful of private equity firms to have taken a more generalist approach to dealmaking, going against the common wisdom of the last few years that generalist funds were waning. Fittingly, middle-market deals centering on coffee and tea have cropped up in recent months, perhaps turning acquirers such as Huron onto a trend.
For more coverage, see "Patrick Dempsey’s Global Baristas Wins Bankrupt Tully’s Auction with $9.15M Bid," as well as Mergers & Acquisitions' 2012 "Deal of the Year" feature, which explores how the $620 million purchase by Starbucks Corp. (Nasdaq: SBUX) of Teavana Holdings Inc. (NYSE: TEA) took the Seattle coffee retailer into new territory.