A historic pasta brand founded in Fort Worth is heating up with its sale to a Central Texas-based global food distributor and manufacturer.
O.B. Macaroni Co., which started in 1899 as the Fort Worth Macaroni Co., was sold Thursday to the McLane Group, a private Temple company that has grown into one of the largest distributors in the world thanks to founder and chairman Drayton McLane Jr.’s former partnership with Walmart.
The acquisition of Texas’ oldest pasta company includes the Q&Q Pasta brand, founded in 1910. Originally called Quality and Quantity Pasta, the brand once owned by O.B. Macaroni is widely sold at grocers such as H-E-B and Kroger. Its vermicelli pasta is often used to make fideo, a Mexican noodle dish. Terms of the sale were not publicly disclosed by McLane Group.
Officials said they plan to honor and preserve the pasta brands that have served loyal customers for more than a century.
“McLane Group is excited about the opportunities ahead and looks forward to carrying these Texas brands into their next chapter,” officials said in a statement.
Frank J. Case III, president of Q&Q Pasta, said McLane Group will maintain the quality of the pasta products.
“We are pleased to become stewards of these historic Texas brands,” Case said in a statement. “Our goal is to respect what has made O.B. Macaroni and Q&Q special for so many years and to remain true to their roots as we look toward the future.”
For 115 years, O.B. Macaroni Co. operated out of a renovated and modernized stagecoach hotel at 108 South Freeway near downtown Fort Worth. The company added “Our Best” to its name to reflect the significance of its products.
The company left the 1860 landmark building — recognizable for its triangular shape — in 2015 for a modern Fort Worth facility to complement its production facilities in Austin and LaPlace, Louisiana. The O.B. Macaroni site has been repurposed to house local food suppliers as well as a wedding venue.
Founded by Fort Worth businessmen Giovanni Bastista Laneri and Louis Bicocchi, the pasta business grew swiftly as it used its location adjacent to railroad tracks to ship products across the southwest United States, according to a company history.
McLane Group was launched as a holding company in 1992 by the former owner of the Houston Astros after McLane Company Inc., also based in Temple, was sold to Walmart in 1990. That company is now a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
McLane Group operates companies that include international food distribution, IT services, software development, and high school and college sports media. McLane Classic Foods, located in Burleson, started in 1992 and produces kettle-cooked food products for its restaurant partners.
Eric E. Garcia is senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at eric.garcia@fortworthreport.org.
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