TreeHouse Foods Inc. (NYSE: THS) is buying Protenergy Natural Foods for C$170 million (U.S. $150 million)

Protenergy, headquartered in Ontario, Canada, develops and manufactures broth, soups and gravies for private label and corporate brands. The company has a second production facility in Cambridge, Md.

Oakbrook, Ill.-based TreeHouse manufactures food products for the retail grocery and food service channels. It is known for providing non-dairy powdered creamer, soups, salad dressings, sauces, drink mixes, hot beverages, teas, cheese, salsas and other products.

"The acquisition of Protenergy is expected to expand our existing packaging capabilities and enables us to offer customers a full range of soup products, both wet and dry.  The addition of Protenergy is also expected to leverage our R&D capabilities in the evolution of shelf stable liquids from cans to cartons. Lastly, we believe Protenergy's packaging applications present meaningful growth opportunities in the categories that we already play in today, as well as closely adjacent food and beverage categories," says Sam Reed, TreeHouse CEO.

Protenergy was sold by Whitecastle Investments Ltd., Whitecap Venture Partners and others.

Barclays acted as TreeHouse's financial adviser, while Winston & Strawn LLP and Stikeman Elliott LLP provided legal advice. William Blair acted as Protenergy's financial adviser, and Goodmans LLP was legal counsel.

Other recent food deals include Post Holdings Inc.'s agreement to buy Michael Foods Group Inc. in April, and Hillshire Brands Co.'s deal for Van's Natural Foods

For more on M&A in the food sector, see "Snack Time."