Ornua Co-operative Limited has acquired Whitehall Specialties, Inc. from Mason Wells

Ornua’s acquisition of Whitehall complements its U.S. ingredients division, Ornua Ingredients North America (OINA), and is central to Ornua’s long-term growth strategy in the U.S. cheese market.

OINA is a leading provider of customized, functional cheese solutions for U.S. food manufacturing and foodservice customers. The acquisition of Whitehall significantly increases OINA’s current position in the U.S. cheese ingredients market, expanding its production footprint across six well invested facilities in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. The acquisition will help drive Ornua’s long-term growth strategy, unlocking significant growth capacity and flexibility to support its existing and new customers’ ambitious growth plans.

Outside of the cheese ingredients sector, Ornua is a leading supplier in the U.S. consumer market with its flagship brand, Kerrygold. Kerrygold, Ireland’s only €1 billion food brand, is the number two butter brand in the U.S. and sells 10 million packs each week globally.

Lincoln acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Ornua, working closely with senior leadership in Ireland and the U.S. This included providing advisory expertise and managing the outreach, negotiation and due diligence phases of the transaction. For Lincoln, the transaction represented another successful deal and extended its investment banking leadership in the dairy and food ingredients sectors. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

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