Florida Food Products acquires Comax Flavors

Melville, N.Y. – Comax and Florida Food Products have reached an agreement in which FFP will assume the majority ownership of Comax from the Calabretta family. The Calabretta family will maintain an ownership stake in the business.

“Comax is the result of 40-plus years of dedication to our craft and the hard work of hundreds of our colleagues,” said Peter Calabretta Jr., Comax’s CEO. “We are excited to partner with the FFP, Ardian, and MidOcean teams, who share our belief that natural ingredients provide consumers with healthier options while offering our customers high-quality alternatives to traditional, synthetic ingredients. This partnership gives Comax access to new technologies, ingredients, and distribution that will accelerate the existing Comax business and provide more solutions and capabilities for our valued customers.”

Jim Holdrieth, FFP’s chief executive officer, said: “As part of the FFP family, Comax will continue to operate its Melville, NY manufacturing facility, and develop industry leading formulations in its Marlton, NJ R-and-D facility. The Calabretta family will maintain an equity position in the combined business.”

Florida Food Products specializes in tea, botanical, coffee and vegetable extraction, which Comax expects to complement its own flavourings. Most manufacturing capabilities of the combined company will include extraction, fermentation, blending (wet and dry), drying, and formulation.

“Most importantly, we want to assure our customers that the outstanding products and services they have come to rely on will remain in place,” the company said in a news release. “Our customers’ satisfaction remains our highest priority.”

“On behalf of the entire Comax team, we thank our customers for their ongoing business. We are proud of our partnerships and we believe that our new organization will be even better positioned for the future.”