Riverside Sells Tate's Bake Shop to Oreo Owner Mondelēz for $500 Million

When Tate’s Bake Shop founder Kathleen King sold her cookie brand to Riverside Company for $100 million in 2014, it seemed like her company had reached the pinnacle of success, but now it has changed hands again—this time in a $500 million sale to Oreo and Chips Ahoy! owner Mondelēz International, Inc.

The May 7 announcement notes that Mondelēz’s acquisition of Tate’s Bake Shop comes following Riverside’s expansion of the brand to four times the sales and earnings over the last five years.

After the 2014 sale, King stayed on with Tate’s as a minority share holder, also serving as quality control, recipe developer and the face of the company. She was not available for comment on Monday.

“Riverside took a great company and made it even better,” Riverside Managing Partner Loren Schlachet says in the release announcing the deal. “Our retail partners had a knack for telling Tate’s exactly what they wanted, and our distributor partners ensured that those needs were met. That’s the essence of great consumer brand investing and it helped make Tate’s a success story.”

Key initiatives during Riverside’s investment included the significant expansion and improvement of processes around production, deepening of existing customer relationships, expanding distribution, new product launches and boosting the national sales and marketing team, which helped double brand awareness.

“Tate’s had a great foundation for becoming the truly special company it is,” Riverside Partner Alan Peyrat says. “With new products like snack-sized Tiny Tate’s and on-trend flavors like Coconut Crisps and Ginger Zinger, we helped the company respond to marketplace demands. Coupled with a focus on profitability, we kept building on the proven success of existing product lines, making customers and consumers even happier along the way. Working with the Tate’s team was a wonderful experience.”

The half billion-dollar transaction is expected to close during the summer following regulatory review.