PR96325

STERLING, Va. and BOSTON, Mass., June 6, 2022 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

- Investment to Accelerate Company's Growth and Global Expansion and Drive

Further Culinary Innovation

Cuisine Solutions (

https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3556470-1&h=680282007&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cuisinesolutions.com%2F&a=Cuisine+Solutions

)  Inc., the global leader and pioneer in sous vide premium foods, today

announced a $250 million investment from Bain Capital to accelerate its growth

and global expansion. 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.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1470817/Cuisine_Solutions_Logo.jpg  

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 and a leading culinary innovation partner, with locations

in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Recognized by the world's

top chefs and kitchens, the company is the production and thought leader on the

innovative slow-cooking technique that it pioneered, perfected, and

popularized. Cuisine Solutions provides prepared sous vide food products to

food service, on-board, military, and retail customers worldwide including

Amtrak, Costco, Dunkin', Hilton Hotels & 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

(NASDAQ: ADV), Bloomin' Brands (NASDAQ: BLMN), Brakes Group Food Distribution,

Burger King (NYSE: QSR), Dessert Holdings, Dunkin' Brands Inc., Domino's Pizza

(NYSE: DPZ), Gail's Bakery, Retail Zoo, Skylark Restaurants, and Valeo Foods.

The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of 2022 and is

subject to customary closing conditions.

Moelis & Company LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor and sole placement

agent and McDermott Will & Emery acted as legal advisor to Cuisine Solutions in

connection with the transaction. BofA Securities served as financial advisor

and Kirkland and Ellis served as legal advisor to Bain Capital.

About Cuisine Solutions

Led by an international team of award-winning chefs, Cuisine Solutions is the

world's leading manufacturer of sous vide products — the innovative, precise

slow-cooking technique the Company pioneered, perfected, and popularized

decades ago. Renowned for its innovation, the Company has launched sous vide

products across a wide spectrum of categories – including proteins, sauces,

grain and plant-based products, and its hugely popular egg bites.  Their

pasteurized sous vide items offer 18 months shelf life frozen, six days when

defrosted, and can be oven finished in mere minutes. This allows food service

and home cooks to save time, simplify the complexity of any supply chain

challenges, and is a perfect solution to significantly reduce waste and labor

costs. Headquartered in Sterling, Virginia, Cuisine Solutions services more

than 22,000 restaurants and 6,000 retailers, as well as major airlines and

hotels. For more information, visit www.cuisinesolutions.com .

About Sous Vide

Sous vide – French for "under-vacuum" – is an innovative cooking technique in

which food is vacuum sealed and heated in water until cooked to perfection.  In

1971, Dr. Bruno Goussault (who would later become Chief Scientist at Cuisine

Solutions) developed sous vide as a way of improving the texture and flavor,

while maintaining the natural integrity of cooked foods. Dr. Goussault

discovered that the sous vide approach – whereby food is slowly cooked at

slightly-lower-than-usual temperature in specially designed, vacuum sealed

pouches – resulted in notable flavor enhancement and a reduction in food

shrinkage compared to conventional cooking methods. Cuisine Solutions' heritage

in sous vide – and its continuous innovation in the science – has allowed the

Company to consistently deliver restaurant-quality products that are trusted

and favored by top chefs and discerning foodies around the world.

About Bain Capital

Bain Capital, LP is one of the world's leading private multi-asset alternative

investment firms that creates lasting impact for our investors, teams,

businesses, and the communities in which we live. Since our founding in 1984,

we've applied our insight and experience to organically expand into numerous

asset classes including private equity, credit, public equity, venture capital,

real estate and other strategic areas of focus. The firm has offices on four

continents, more than 1,300 employees and approximately $160 billion in assets

under management. To learn more, visit www.baincapital.com .

Media Contacts:

For Cuisine Solutions

R. Couri Hay / Denise Finnegan

R. Couri Hay Creative PR

Couri@rcourihaycpr.com | Denise@rcourihaycpr.com

212-580-0835

For Bain Capital

Scott Lessne / Charlyn Lusk Stanton

(646) 502-3569 / (646) 502-3549

slessne@stantonprm.com / clusk@stantonprm.com

SOURCE  Cuisine Solutions, Inc.