Cuisine Solutions secures $250 million capital investment

“The minority investment will further establish Cuisine Solutions’ authority in the sous vide category, provide additional resources to support accelerated product innovation, and expand its business domestically and internationally as well as the company’s global manufacturing footprint beyond the United States, France, and Thailand,” said a June release from the company.

Cuisine Solutions will continue to operate under the leadership of the existing management team, led by Chief Executive Officer, Felipe Hasselmann, and Chairman, Stanislas Vilgrain, who remain significant owners in the business, in addition to the Vilgrain family retaining a controlling interest.

Headquartered in Sterling, Virginia, Cuisine Solutions is the largest sous vide company in the world, with locations in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The company provides prepared sous vide food products to food service, travel catering, military are retail customers customers worldwide including Amtrak, Costco, Dunkin’ Donuts, Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Panera, and Starbucks among many other industry leaders.

“Our future, while bright before this strategic partnership, is now even more exciting as we see substantial runway to drive growth and expansion through continued innovation across multiple product categories,” said Hasselmann. “We are proud to be the leader in the art and science of sous vide, which is the answer to so many of the challenges our clients face inside and outside of the kitchen. This investment will enable us to rapidly scale our worldwide manufacturing infrastructure, business partnerships, and fortify our supply chain, thereby creating additional scale to meet the growing needs of the global partners who rely on our products every day across tens of thousands of locations.”

“My vision when founding Cuisine Solutions was to be the best innovator and food producer in our space, develop best-in-class partnerships, and have our reputation speak for itself through our quality, scale, and innovation,” said Vilgrain. “To have a world-class investment firm of Bain Capital’s caliber support our vision speaks to the success of our original mission and to the exciting future of our industry. I am extremely proud of our accomplishments from our humble start in 1990 to today and am looking forward to building together with Bain Capital a leading, innovative food company of the future.”

“Stanislas, Felipe, and the management team have done an outstanding job building Cuisine Solutions into a clear leader in the fast-growing sous vide market that is recognized by many of the world’s top chefs. The company’s unique range of culinary innovations offer higher quality and consistency, better food safety, and lower costs, which is a win-win for their customers in the current macroeconomic environment,” said Cristian Jitianu, a Managing Director at Bain Capital. “We are excited to partner with Cuisine Solutions and support the management team’s growth plans while further enhancing the value proposition as the preferred culinary innovation partner to blue-chip restaurant, retail, travel, and hospitality brands,” added Jeffrey Chung, a Director at Bain Capital.

Bain Capital has a long history of partnering with companies in the consumer, retail, and restaurant industries to accelerate growth. The firm’s restaurant, food service, and grocery-related investments have included Advantage Solutions, Bloomin’ Brands, Brakes Group Food Distribution, Burger King, Dessert Holdings, Dunkin’ Brands Inc., Domino’s Pizza, Gail’s Bakery, Retail Zoo, Skylark Restaurants, and Valeo Foods.