US foodservice giant Sysco Corporation is eyeing a deal for a private equity-backed, Florida-based processor and distributor, sources told Undercurrent News.
North Star Seafood, a wholesaler based in Pompano Beach which took an investment from private equity Trivest Capital Partners in 2013, is the company Sysco is looking to buy, three sources told Undercurrent.
A spokesman for Sysco said the firm does not comment on “rumors or speculation”.
Chip Vandenberg, a partner with Trivest, also declined to comment on Sysco, but gave some comments on North Star.
The company, Vandenberg told Undercurrent, have made three acquisitions with Trivest as an investor and could look to do more.
Since the recapitalization of North Star, the business has bought Florida’s Finest Seafood, Sea World Seafood Distributor and, last year, Incredible Fish.
The deal for Incredible Fish gave the company national sales, said Vandenberg.
“Before, we were mainly in Florida,” he said.
At the time of the original deal in 2013, Trivest told Undercurrent the plan was to double the company’s sales — which were $80 million at the time — over the next five years.
Vandenberg declined to comment on more recent sales figures, after the deals for Florida’s Finest, Sea World and Incredible Fish.
At the time of the Trivest deal, the investor said Eric Burman, president and CEO, was staying on. His son, Josh, is listed as the chief operating officer of the business.
Eric and Josh Burman could not be reached for comment.
In 2014, Eric Burman was accused of illegally trafficking in Florida spiny lobster to China and pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to three years of probation and fined $250,000, the US government said.
The illegal deals took place in 2010 and 2011, according to the press release from the US government, several years before the sale to Trivest.
Sysco expanding in Florida seafood
Sysco, which on Feb. 1 reported sales of $12.2 billion for its latest quarter, the 13 weeks to Dec. 26, bought a Florida seafood firm at the end of 2013.
In December 2013, Sysco announced deals for four companies with combined turnover of around $520m, one of which was Central Seafood Company, a seafood supplier based in Orlando.
In September last year, a few months after the collapse of its attempt to merge with rival US Foods, Sysco said it aims to increase deliveries to local, independent restaurants.
The Sysco-US Foods deal collapsed last June, days after the US District Court in Washington, D.C., granted the Federal Trade Commission request for a preliminary injunction to block it. This also terminated an agreement to buy facilities from Performance Food Group in 11 markets.
Under terms of the merger agreement, the termination of the transaction required Sysco to pay break-up fees of $300m to US Foods and $12.5m to PFG —