Alantra advises Tribe 9 Foods on the acquisition of Carla’s Pasta

May 2021

Buy-side advisory

Boston – Alantra, a leading global investment bank and asset management firm, is pleased to announce that Tribe 9 Foods has acquired Carla’s Pasta in a bankruptcy auction. The transaction closed on April 30, 2021 for $26.3 million.

Headquartered in South Windsor, Connecticut, Carla’s Pasta was founded in 1978 by president and namesake, Carla Squatrito. The company is a leading provider of pasta products, including pasta sheets, tortellini, ravioli, and steam bag meals for branded and private label retail, foodservice distributors, and restaurants. Carla’s Pasta was challenged by the downturn in foodservice created by COVID-19, but Tribe 9 plans to retain virtually all of the employees from Carla’s operations at its state-of-the-art BRC+ certified 150,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Connecticut.

Tribe 9 Foods, a certified B Corp. headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, is the owner of gluten-free pasta brand Taste Republic, and RP’s Pasta, a producer of small batch, artisan fresh pasta. The acquisition of Carla’s Pasta is in line with Tribe 9 Foods’ stated plans to build the strongest producer of value-added pastas across a variety of channels.

“Carla’s has such a storied history, providing the most delicious traditional pasta for the restaurant industry,” said Brian Durst, chairman and CEO of Tribe 9 Foods in a company statement. “At the same time, our Taste Republic brand is rapidly building a leading presence across food industry channels with the most delicious gluten-free, grain-free and vegan pasta offerings.  Combined with Carla’s leadership in delicious, value-added traditional pasta, we will be thrilled to provide a complete range of solutions for our customers, including foodservice, industrial, retail, private label, and contract manufacturing.”

“We are pleased to have been able to facilitate the combination of Tribe 9 and Carla’s,” said Josh Garver, Managing Director at Alantra. “We believe the Tribe 9 team is ideally suited to help reinvigorate the Carla’s Pasta business, and the combined offering of traditional and non-traditional pastas should create a leading player in the value-added pasta category.”

Alantra’s Joshua Garver (Managing Director, Boston) advised Tribe 9 Foods on the acquisition, along with contributions from Scott Hadfield (Managing Director, New York) and Andre Silva (Associate, Boston).