Del Monte Foods completes acquisition of Snokist Growers’ assets

Californian food company Del Monte has completed the acquisition of the assets of bankrupt Snokist Growers, a Washington-based fruit processing cooperative.

The acquisition includes a cold storage facility in Sawyer and a cannery in Terrace Heights, Washington. Del Monte, which already has a pear and fruit processing plant in Yakima, will be able to double its pear and cherry production and take on the processing of apples and plums.

Del Monte vice president of operations Dave Withycombe said the company has already secured contracts with several area growers, including former Snokist growers.

The company will continue to run the Sawyer cold storage facility and the Terrace Heights cannery, and is evaluating a processing plan to boost volumes of pears, cherries, apples and plums.

Snokist Growers filed for bankruptcy last year after a contamination complaint from the FDA led to consumer concerns and a decline in sales.

As a part of bankruptcy filing, the cooperative’s board of directors and management planned to sell its inventory and other assets to generate the money to pay all the growers and three main creditors Rabo AgriFinance, KeyBank and Community Bank.

During the bidding process, Snokist Growers planned to strike a deal with Truitt Brothers, which offered $42.5m for the cooperative’s inventory and assets, however, the deal failed after Truitt Brothers was unable to secure enough funds to make the purchase.

Pacific Coast Producers (PCP), which was a distributor for Snokist, and Del Monte Foods together offered a $27.7m bid for Snokist Growers, which was approved by a US Bankruptcy Court judge last month. Following this, PCP bought the inventory of Snokist growers, while Del Monte purchased the assets.