A summary of mergers & acquisitions and investments in the nutrition, natural product, health & wellness, and green product industries.

• NCN News for October 4, 2011

Transaction Headlines
Revelry Invests in Only Natural Pet
meQuilibrium Raises $2.3 Million
Investment for Honest Kitchen
French Certifier ECOCERT Buys Indiana Certified Organic
Wild Flavors to Acquire A.M. Todd Assets
DSM Transfers Corporate Wellness Business to Viocare
GrubHub Acquires Dotmenu
Lansinoh Acquires Earth Friendly Baby
Kerry to Acquire Cargill’s Flavors Business
Kerry Acquires SuCrest
Omega Protein Buys InCon Processing
Fifth Acquisition for Frutarom
Indena Partners with Thorne Research
Avrio Ventures Raises Second Fund

Revelry invests in Only Natural Pet
Revelry Brands, a Boulder-based investment firm focused on natural foods and consumer products acquired a stake in Only Natural Pet Store LLC, a natural pet product and information e-commerce website with a flagship store in Boulder, CO. Revelry's investment, which closed on September 15, 2011, will be used to help Only Natural Pet grow its online customer base, build out a new wholesale brand and corresponding team, and extend its product offering to new retail outlets. Only Natural Pet sells over 3,000 branded pet products from leading natural and holistic pet supply firms and 200 of its own products under the Only Natural Pet brand. Revelry was founded by Brendan Synnott, who founded and sold Bear Naked to Kellogg in 2007. Revelry has minority investments in EVOL Food, Siggi's Dairy and Data Garden. Only Natural Pet was an NCN VII presenting company in San Francisco in 2010.

meQuilibrium Raises $2.3 Million for Stress Management Business
meQuilibrium (Boston, Mass.), a provider of online stress management solutions for consumers and employers, has closed $2.3 million in Series A financing led by Chrysalis Ventures and joined by RIME Communications Capital and individual investors. The investment will be used to commercialize product, beginning with a free stress tracker app that allows consumers to track and monitor patterns in stress, and a paid service that gives subscribers tools and exercises to assess and improve their resilience to stress. Jan Bruce, CEO, founded meQuilibrium in 2010 during her tenure as entrepreneur-in-residence at Chrysalis. Bruce was formerly the managing director of wholeliving.com and Whole Living magazine at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. The meQuilibrium program is based on clinical practice and research by CSO Dr. Andrew Shatté, a professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, and by CMO Dr. Adam Perlman, executive director of Integrative Medicine at Duke University.

Investment for Natural Petfood Firm Honest Kitchen
The Honest Kitchen Inc. (San Diego, Calif.), maker of natural petfood, treats and supplements, has received a minority growth capital investment from Alliance Consumer Growth and White Road Investments. Proceeds will be used for distribution, sales, product innovation and marketing. Honest Kitchen’s products take a whole food approach and are made in a human grade food facility. The nine-year-old company has historically focused on independent pet stores and recently gained distribution in some natural food stores. With 23% combined average annual top line growth rate for the past two years, The Honest Kitchen said it has become one of America's fastest petfood brands.

French Certifier ECOCERT Buys Indiana Certified Organic
ECOCERT, a French environmental body devoted to sustainable development and the certification of organic agricultural products, has acquired Indiana Certified Organic (ICO, Plainfield, Ind.), an organic certification agency with more than 300 U.S. clients. ICO began offering organic certification in 1995 and was one of the first organizations to be accredited by the U.S. National Organic Program. ECOCERT's strategy is to develop its North American business with established local partners in the United States.

Wild Flavors To Acquire A.M. Todd Assets
Wild Flavors GmbH (Zug, Switzerland) expects to acquire certain assets of the A.M. Todd Group Inc. (Kalamazoo, Mich.) by the end of October. A.M. Todd supplies mint flavors and valued added mint ingredients, and also owns technologies related to organic flavors and ingredients. Although specific assets weren’t described, the Kalamazoo Gazette reported that the deal essentially involves Todd's Ingredients and Flavors Division. Todd was founded in 1869 and is one of the world’s oldest and largest suppliers of American peppermint and spearmint oils. The company also supplies botanical and nutritional ingredients for the dietary supplement and functional food industries.

DSM Transfers Corporate Wellness Business to Viocare
Royal DSM (Heerlan, the Netherlands), a global life sciences and materials sciences company, has sold DSM Personalized Nutrition LLC to Viocare Inc. (Princeton, N.J.). Viocare creates nutrition and wellness technology platforms for corporate and community programs. DSM Personalized Nutrition’s corporate wellness business will become part of Viocare’s operations, and a representative of DSM Venturing will join Viocare’s board of directors. DSM will remain involved in the business as a minority shareholder in Viocare through DSM Venturing. Financial details were not disclosed. DSM is an NCN Cornerstone Investor and Viocare was an NCN VIII presenting company in New York in 2011.

GrubHub Acquires Dotmenu
Online restaurant order site GrubHub (Chicago, Ill.) has raised $50 million in Series E funding to acquire Dotmenu (New York), the parent company of Campusfood and Allmenus. GrubHub is a web and mobile service that facilitates online ordering for takeout and delivery. Lightspeed Ventures led the round, with Mesirow Financial, Benchmark Capital, Greenspring Associates and DAG Ventures participating. The investment comes just six months after GrubHub raised $20 million in a round led by DAG Ventures. Dotmenu serves the college market, with a network spanning more than 300 campuses. GrubHub and Dotmenu combined are projected to send more than $225 million in order revenues to independent restaurants in 2011. Restaurants pay commissions for each order received, reportedly around 10-15%. Financing will also be used to develop GrubHub’s mobile business; over 22% of its revenues come from mobile orders.

Lansinoh Acquires Earth Friendly Baby
Lansinoh Laboratories Inc. (Alexandria, Va.) has acquired the Earth Friendly Baby brand of natural and organic shampoos, bubble bath, and skin care products from HealthQuest Ltd. (Edgware, Middlesex, U.K.). Lansinoh sells breastfeeding and toddler-feeding products and is a subsidiary of the Japanese Nikkei-listed Pigeon Corp. Earth Friendly Baby was acquired by HealthQuest in 2004 and represented around 75% of its 2010 sales; HealthQuest’s other product lines are Earth Friendly Kids, Pure Adore, and Organic Blue. Ashwin Mehta, managing director of HealthQuest, will remain with the company and continue to develop the brand. Earth Friendly Baby is distributed primarily in the United Kingdom. In the U.S. it is sold through specialty retailers and in several northeast regional Whole Foods Stores.

Kerry to Acquire Cargill’s Flavors Business
Global ingredients and consumer foods group Kerry (Tralee, Ireland) has entered into an agreement to acquire Cargill’s global flavors business for $230 million. Cargill Flavor Systems (Minneapolis, Minn.) generates annual revenues of approximately $200 million, serving a global customer base in the beverage, dairy, sweet and savory categories. It was built around the Degussa Food Ingredients flavor business acquired by Cargill in April 2006 combined with Duckworth Flavors in the United Kingdom. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, should be completed by the end of the year. Kerry said the acquisition would extend its capabilities in emerging markets.

Kerry Acquires SuCrest
Kerry has agreed to acquire SuCrest GmbH (Hochheim am Main, Germany), a provider of sweet ingredients to the bakery, ice cream, confectionery, cereal and snack sectors in Europe. SuCrest reported annual revenue of €50 million in the financial year ended 31 December 2010. It has facilities in Germany and Belarus and an office in Moscow. The acquisition will broaden Kerry's technology, customer and geographic base in EMEA markets. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, should be completed by the end of 2011.

Omega Protein Buys InCon Processing
Publicly traded Omega Protein Corp. (Houston), a supplier of omega-3 fish oil and specialty fish meal products, has acquired InCon Processing LLC (Batavia, Ill.), a specialty toll processor that uses molecular distillation technology to concentrate a variety of compound products, including omega-3 fish oils. The acquisition allows Omega Protein to “increase the vertical integration of our commercial fishery and human nutrition distribution channels by filling a vital piece of that value chain," said Chairman, President and CEO Joe von Rosenberg. "InCon enables us to provide our customers with an enhanced range of omega-3 fish oils in concentrated forms such as ethyl esters and triglycerides that we have not been able to offer before.”

Fifth Acquisition this Year for Frutarom
Frutarom (Haifa, Israel), a global supplier of flavors and raw materials, reported its fifth acquisition this year: Flavor Systems International Inc. (Cincinnati, Ohio). The final price of the transaction will be related to future earnings and is expected to be in the $29.3-$45.3 million range. In addition, Frutarom will pay $6.5 million for real estate assets. Flavor Systems’ revenues for the 12 months ended July 31, 2011 were $18.4 million compared to $16.5 million for the year ended October 31, 2010. The acquisition gives Frutarom access to the field of savory flavors in the United States. It already claims a prominent position in the European savory market, achieved through internal growth and acquisitions, including three in 2011.

Indena Partners with Thorne Research
Thorne Research a developer,  manufacturer and seller of supplements through healthcare practitioners, and Italian botanical extracts leader Indena announced a strategic research, commercial, and scientific cooperation. Indena will offer current products and develop innovative, clinically-validated botanical ingredients for dietary supplements to be manufactured and marketed to practitioners exclusively by Thorne. Idb Holding, the parent company to Indena, will become a minority shareholder in Thorne Holding, the investment arm of Thorne Research.

Avrio Ventures Raises Second Fund
Avrio Ventures announced a $50-million first closing on its second fund, Avrio Ventures LLP II and is actively seeking new investments. The fund is focused on  later stage venture investments in the food and agriculture sector.  Avrio principals have been focused exclusively on food and agriculture since 2002 and have invested in 36 companies. The first fund focused on investments of $3-6 million in commercialization to growth stage companies from its offices in Calgary, Toronto and Montreal. Avrio is an NCN Cornerstone Investor.