Coffee Holding Co., Inc. Acquires Comfort Foods Inc.
Source Coffee Holding Co., Inc.
STATEN ISLAND, NY--(Marketwired - Feb 24, 2017) - Coffee Holding Co., Inc. ("Coffee Holding" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: JVA) announces the acquisition of Comfort Foods Inc., located in North Andover, Massachusetts, a medium sized regional roaster, manufacturing both branded and private label coffee for retail and foodservice customers located predominantly in the northeast marketplace. In connection with the acquisition, the Company paid $2.3 million for 100% of the capital stock of Comfort Foods which had approximately $7.3 million in trailing twelve month revenues.
Comfort Foods was incorporated in August 1992 as a distributor of quality gourmet coffee in distinctive expanded canisters. The use of 100% Arabica beans in patented, trademarked expanded canisters has positioned Comfort Foods' Harmony Bay brand as a premium coffee at a competitive price point. Multiple coffee profiles are available to customers in their trademarked cans in sizes ranging from 10-48oz throughout the United States in various grocers, mass-merchants and specialty stores. In addition, over the past five years, Harmony Bay has introduced its products in its 4-corner flexible packaging bags. These attractive bags are available in various product profiles in volumes of 28-40oz. Comfort Foods also provides roasting and packaging services for various private labels, co-packing and licensing customers.
"We are excited to bring Comfort Foods and its Harmony Bay brand coffee into our already diverse portfolio of strong regional retail coffee brands. The Harmony Bay brand, with its uniquely patented molded canisters and diverse flavor profiles is currently sold in over 1,000 stores and will increase our overall presence and subsequent economies of scale at many of these current retail accounts in the northeast. In addition, through our national platform, we believe we can expand the brand's distribution over a wider marketing area," said Andrew Gordon, President and CEO of Coffee Holding. "In addition, we will once again begin roasting and packaging our products on the east coast in the fully equipped and spacious modern roasting facility we have acquired. In conjunction to closing this transaction, we renegotiated Comfort Foods' prior lease arrangement which will now provide us with both a highly efficient and economical space in which to conduct our roasting and packaging operations for the next ten years. We believe this transaction will create logistical savings for many of our sales transacted on the eastern seaboard and will also increase our competitive advantage at a number of current and potential accounts in the northeast marketing area. We expect the synergistic value of roasting both in Colorado and Massachusetts to translate to higher margins and renewed efficiencies for both current and potential new business."
About Coffee Holding
Coffee Holding Co., Inc. is a leading integrated wholesale coffee roaster and dealer in the United States and one of the few coffee companies that offers a broad array of coffee products across the entire spectrum of consumer tastes, preferences and price points. Coffee Holding has been a family-operated business for three generations and has remained profitable through varying cycles in the coffee industry and the economy. The Company's private label and branded coffee products are sold throughout the United States, Canada and abroad to supermarkets, wholesalers, and individually owned and multi-unit retail customers.
Any statements that are not historical facts contained in this release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including the Company's outlook on future margin performance and its share repurchase program. Forward-looking statements include statements with respect to our beliefs, plans, objectives, goals, expectations, anticipations, assumptions, estimates, intentions, and future performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may be beyond our control, and which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements upon information available to management as of the date of this release and management's expectations and projections about certain future events. It is possible that the assumptions made by management for purposes of such statements may not materialize. Such statements may involve risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those relating to product demand, pricing, market acceptance, hedging activities, the effect of economic conditions, intellectual property rights, the outcome of competitive products, risks in product development, the results of financing efforts, the ability to complete transactions, and other factors discussed from time to time in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement for events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made.