Date Closed

January 29, 2010

Lead Office

Toronto

Value

190.00 Million USD

On February 1, 2010, Kehe Food Distributors announced its official acquisition of Tree of Life. Tree of Life’s Dutch parent company, Royal Wessanen nv, announced in late December that it was selling its natural and specialty foods divisions to Kehe for US$190 million.

Though Kehe doesn’t currently distribute products in Canada, it plans to grow with the Tree of Life business there.

Kehe Food Distributors, headquartered in Romeoville, Illinois, is an employee-owned distributor of specialty foods and currently distributes more than 40,000 products (which includes natural and organic) to 15,000+ retail stores throughout the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Tree of Life, based in St. Augustine, Florida, distributes natural, organic, specialty, and multicultural food products to natural food retailers.

McCarthy Tétrault LLP represented Kehe Food Distributors, as acquiror, with a team led by Ian Palm.