Fairfield-based Saxco International, which distributes bottles, cans, capsules and other beverage and food packaging, is acquired by St. Louis-based Novvia Group.
Saxco International LLC, a significant distributor of beverage and food packaging for wine and other industries, has been acquired by a St. Louis-based global distributor of similar items.
Novvia Group on Thursday announced it acquired Fairfield-based Saxco, which is said to supply over 5,000 wineries, brewers, distillers and specialty food and beverage manufacturers across North America with more than 10,000 products. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Saxco operates over 1 million square feet of warehouse space in 20 fulfillment centers.
This is the second time the Solano County company has changed hands in the past several years. In 2018, Greenwich, Connecticut-based Atlas Holdings LLC picked up Saxco from The Sterling Group, which had owned it since 2010.
The Saxco team will assume leadership over Novvia’s consumer product distribution division, leveraging their expertise to drive a thoughtful organic and inorganic growth strategy.
“The acquisition of Saxco is an important milestone in Novvia’s history. We are thrilled to partner with the strong Saxco team and bring Novvia’s organizational resources and deep customer and supplier relationships to bear as we scale our consumer packaging offering,” said Ken Roessler, Novvia executive chairman in the news release.
Novvia is owned by private-equity firm Kelso & Company, which has about $20 million in equity capital. Kelso was started in 1980 by Louis Kelso, pioneer of the employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP.
The Sachs family started Saxco in 1936. The company started an acquisition growth spurt at the dawn of the 21st century, picking up Wine Bottle in Toronto and Pacific Coast Container in Vancouver, Washington.
Saxco expanded to the Bay Area with the acquisitions of California Glass in Oakland, Demptos Glass in Fairfield and Synergy Glass & Packaging in Benicia. That growth and dominance of alcoholic-beverage packaging distribution attracted The Sterling Group, a Houston-based private equity investment firm, to acquire Saxco.
Saxco consolidated multiple Bay Area fulfillment centers into a large warehouse in Solano Logistics Center in Fairfield in 2014, the Business Journal reported at the time.
Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.