December 19/New York/PRNewswire -- Teasdale Quality Foods Inc., a manufacturer and marketer of Hispanic foods and a producer of canned hominy and beans in California as well as a major producer of conventional and organic canned dried beans, acquired Zateca Foods LLC and Greeley Trading Company, a processor and supplier of packaged pre-cooked dehydrated beans.  The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Teasdale is a portfolio company of a private equity fund affiliated with Palladium Equity Partners LLC, a private investment firm with a special focus on investments in the U.S. Hispanic marketplace.

Zateca is a vertically integrated producer of pre-cooked dehydrated beans, selling to a variety of institutional foodservice providers, ingredient/spice manufacturers, commissaries and branded food manufacturers. Its main product offerings include: refried bean mix, pre-cooked dry whole beans, bean flakes, bean powder, bean granules and quick cooking beans.

Kregg Listen, president of Zateca, will remain with the company as general manager of its Dehydrated Bean Division.

Listen said, "For more than two decades, Zateca has endeavored to provide kitchens with great tasting and easy to use bean ingredients.  We are very excited to be joining an established industry leader like Teasdale, which will better position us to pursue growth opportunities and enable us to bring our products to more customers across the United States."

Alberto Bandera, CEO of Teasdale, commented, "We believe that this is a strong strategic fit both operationally and culturally.  Zateca, like Teasdale, was established with the goal of providing shelf-stable bean products that are easy to prepare and do not compromise on quality or nutritional value.  We are further delighted that Kregg Listen will be joining us to lead our Dehydrated Bean Division.  We look forward to benefiting from his deep experience as we continue to pursue opportunities to bring great tasting products to our broad and growing customer base."

Luis Zaldivar, a managing director at Palladium, said, "Zateca is a well-known and highly regarded supplier of high-quality bean products that has leveraged its unique dehydration technology to provide great tasting products at very competitive prices.  This acquisition will significantly expand Teasdale's reach and growing customer base, and will further enhance the Company's operations east of the Rockies.  At the same time, Zateca will benefit from Teasdale's scale and marketing expertise in offering a wide range of branded and private label products to meet the needs of a diverse customer base."