CALIFORNIA : SOUTHLAND FOCUS : Bestfoods to Buy Corona Sauce Maker

Bestfoods, the maker of popular food products such as Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Skippy peanut butter, said it finalized plans to acquire Case Swayne Co., a maker of custom sauces and seasonings. Terms of the purchase, coming on the heels of merger rumors involving Bestfoods, were not disclosed. Case Swayne has annual sales of about $150 million, which will raise Bestfoods’ North America food-service sales to more than $600 million a year. Corona-based Case Swayne, founded in 1943, sells to restaurants, hotels, cafeterias and other institutional clients. A Bestfoods spokesman said the company regards the food-service segment as a potential growth area within the food industry.

The acquisition comes at a time when big players in the food business are posting disappointing results, and the industry is rife with merger talk. One rumor involved Bestfoods and fellow food giant H.J. Heinz Co. Bestfoods has denied it was in talks with the well-known catsup maker. Case Swayne is owned by privately held investment firm Chase Capital Partners and Keith Swayne, the company’s president. Bestfoods of Englewood Cliffs, N.J., said it will combine Case Swayne with Milwaukee Seasonings, Bestfoods’ food ingredient unit in Germantown, Wis. The combined unit will have $250 million in annual sales. Keith Swayne will stay as chief executive of the combined company, which will be based in Corona. Bestfoods shares closed at $50.56, down 95 cents on the New York Stock Exchange.