Maker of Prepared Salads Acquires Alex Brands Inc.

Alex Brands Inc. of Anaheim has been acquired by Orval Kent Food Co. Inc. for $35 million in cash and stock in a deal that merges the nation’s top two makers of prepared salads for the restaurant and supermarket industries.

The purchase was completed Dec. 31.

For Alex Brands, the purchase is the latest in a series of recent corporate jugglings.

In 1985, the company was spun off from its parent, Alex Foods Inc., a 29-year-old maker of Mexican foods, and sold through a leveraged buy-out to its employees and managers. The new company, led by President Steve Charton, then decided last year to seek a combination with Orval Kent, the nation’s largest maker of prepared salads.

“Now we don’t have to compete against them,” Charton said.

Kent estimates its 1986 sales at $110 million, and Alex Brands said its sales last year were $60 million. The combined companies now control about 40% of the market for prepared salads, and that share is expected to grow to more than half within the next two years, Kent said.

The acquisition has cleared government regulatory review, Charton said.

The deal calls for Charton to continue as president of the Alex Brands division of Orval Kent and for the company’s 450 employees to be unaffected by the acquisition.