NorSun Food Group

NorSun Food Group, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, is a leading supplier and manufacturer of specialty food ingredients to large packaged food companies and restaurant chains. NorSun has created and maintained a leading share of the industrial Individually Quick Frozen ("IQF") roasted and whole baked potato market and has grown rapidly over the past several years. Customers such as Nestle, ConAgra, Pillsbury and Campbell Soup use NorSun's ingredients in frozen entrees or soups. NorSun also develops proprietary, customized flavors and processes for its customers. The company owns specialty processing plants in Fort Kent, Maine, and Rexburg, Idaho. NorSun's growth is being driven by expansion of the Home Meal Replacement category; increased outsourcing by large branded food companies; the introduction and early acceptance of NorSun's specialized food ingredients in restaurant and supermarket channels; healthy eating trends (NorSun's products are fat-free); and growth in the roasted/flame-broiled vegetable category. In 1999, Sentinel Capital Partners and management acquired NorSun in a management buyout transaction. Sentinel sponsored the acquisition, arranged the debt and provided private equity financing. In December 2005, after having owned the company for six years, Sentinel sold NorSun to Dickinson Frozen Foods, Inc., a leading provider of individually quick frozen onions and peppers to large industrial food processors and food service companies.