Flagship acquisition adds fresh guacamole, dips to portfolio

Flagship Food Group LLC acquired Yucatan Foods LLC, adding guacamole and dips to its growing portfolio of Southwestern foods. Yucatan manufactures and markets fresh guacamole and salsa under the Yucatan and Cabo Fresh brands. Sold nationwide and throughout Canada, Yucatan has long been a pioneer in the retail, pre-made guacamole category and is one of the larger brands in the set.

“We have been building Flagship to be a scaled, multicategory food company with a focus on premium and Hispanic food products,” said Rob Holland, executive chairman of Flagship.

“Our current product portfolio is very complementary to that of Yucatan,” said Matt Finnerty with Flagship. “We are excited to plan some impactful cross-promoting of our world-famous Hatch Valley green chile and salsa, chips, tortillas and now fresh guacamole.”

Yucatan joins a family of brands that includes 505 Southwestern, La Tortilla Factory and Lilly B’s, to name a few of the company’s most recognized brands in the Southwestern category. The acquisition not only adds to the better-for-you offerings within Flagship, but also emphasizes a focus on vertical integration with the addition of 97,000 square feet of manufacturing space in Silao, Mexico.

Through its subsidiaries Flagship Premium Food Group and Desert Premium Group, the company has leadership positions in tortillas, tortilla chips, salsa, green chile and frozen Mexican handheld categories. Its brands include 505 Southwestern, La Tortilla Factory, Hatch Kitchen, Lilly B’s and Young Guns.

“This is great for the future of this legendary brand in the guacamole category,” said Stephen Hillion, vice president of sales and marketing for Yucatan. “Being part of this broad family of complementary Hispanic and Southwestern food products will allow us to offer more value to our retail partners and to consumers. We are going into immediate action to collaborate with our partners to realize these synergies.”

Flagship operates manufacturing and distribution facilities in Colorado, Kansas, California, New Mexico and Mexico. The company believes that it is the largest flame roaster of Hatch Valley green chiles in the world.

“We’re really excited about expanding our consumer reach into the refrigerated dairy, deli and produce categories, and Yucatan is the perfect brand partner. We’ll be integrating Yucatan’s sales and marketing efforts into our salsa, green chile and dips business,” said Sam Carson, brand president for 505 Southwestern. “We’re wasting no time in merging this brand into our 505SW portfolio and innovating on products, marketing, quality, and packaging. This will be fun!”

“This acquisition will definitely result in some innovative product development,” said Holland. “I expect we’ll see some exciting ‘Hatch Valley’ guacamole products coming out very soon.”