(February 6, 2025 – Paris, France) Solina, a leader in the global food industry specializing in savoury food solutions, has acquired U.S. based Sokol Custom Food Ingredients (“Sokol”), further expanding its presence in North America. This is on the heels of Solina’s December 2024 acquisition of Advanced Food Systems, Inc. (AFS), as the company continues to take a leading role in the region’s food industry.
Located in Countryside, Illinois, Sokol supplies custom savoury and sweet sauce solutions for the food manufacturing, retail, and foodservice channels. The acquisition will enhance Solina USA’s sweet sauce capabilities, increase capacity and scale, further strengthen its resilient supply chain, and drive growth.
“Sokol’s business is very complementary to Solina USA’s business, and it also brings a new specialization in sweet sauces to complement our expertise in savoury,” said Anthony Francheterre, Global CEO of Solina. “Like Solina USA, Sokol is a value-added partner to its customers through a unique blend of manufacturing capabilities, innovation, and ideation, led by a culinary driven R&D Team.”
“Leveraging Sokol’s sweet sauce capabilities will round out and enhance our offerings,” said Michael Marks, President, Solina USA, adding, “This acquisition reinforces our commitment to savoury sauce solutions while also pursuing the sweet sector, as we focus on being the leading ‘one stop shop’ for liquid flavour solutions for our customers.”
Sokol is located near Solina’s Bolingbrook, IL site, continuing to build the company’s central distribution point in the Midwest. This is Solina’s fourth acquisition in the U.S., following Asenzya in 2021, Saratoga Food Specialties in 2022, and AFS in 2024. Solina will now have five sites in the U.S.: California, Illinois (2), Nevada, and New Jersey.
Mark Duffy, Regional CEO, Solina North America, and Michael Marks will lead the integration process, and during this time, Sokol management will provide day-to-day leadership to their team.
“We are pleased to join Solina,” said Shawn Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer, Sokol Custom Food Ingredients. “Solina is the ideal partner to further accelerate the growth opportunities of our talented people, our important customers, and our overall business strategy. We look forward to collaborating with Solina to cultivate continued and future success at Sokol’s Countryside, IL location.” Tim Novak, Partner at Burlington Capital Partners and former Chairman of Sokol added, “This represents a transformative milestone for Sokol. As Sokol celebrates its 130-year anniversary, we are excited to see the business continue to thrive under Solina leadership.”
For more information, please contact: press@solina.com
About Solina
Solina is a leading global partner for the food industry, foodservice, QSR (quick- service restaurants), and nutrition sectors, designing tailor-made ingredient solutions that contribute to the creation of food that is good in every sense of the word; good for people, good for the planet. With 44 production sites and numerous local R&D centers close to its customers, Solina combines culinary and technical expertise that enables the company to design innovative food solutions excelling in taste, functionality, and nutrition. Headquartered in France, the company counts more than 4000 employees, production facilities in 19 countries, and serves clients in more than 75 countries. Solina’s majority shareholder is Astorg, an independent private equity firm.
For more information, please visit:
www.solina.com
About Sokol Custom Food Ingredients
The foundation of Sokol Custom Food Ingredients began 130 years ago in Chicago, Illinois. With a unique blend of manufacturing capabilities and product offerings, Sokol partners with leading CPG, QSR, foodservice, and food manufacturing companies to offer custom, proprietary formulations and standard product offerings. Sokol is a value-added partner to its customers through innovation and ideation, led by a culinary driven R&D team to develop sweet and savoury sauces along with staple ingredients offerings like almond paste and anchovy paste. The company has over 100 employees at its Countryside, IL manufacturing plant and office.
For more information, please visit:
www.sokolcustomfoods.com
