Hearthside Food Solutions (“Hearthside”) announced the acquisition of Oak State Products (“Oak State”), a privately held contract manufacturer of cookies, bars and other baked foods located in Wenona, Ill. The Oak State production facility brings the Hearthside production network to a total of 24 facilities.

The acquisition will enable the company to add immediate baking capacity as the demand for food contract manufacturing continues to grow. Terms were not disclosed.

Hearthside, with 20 production facilities in the US and three in Europe, is the largest contract manufacturer of bars and baked goods in North America and the largest producer of functional bars in the EU. The Oak State acquisition will add one additional US manufacturing location, bringing the network to 24 facilities.

“Oak State represents an opportunity to add instant capacity to our network. Their flexible production lines complement our existing large scale lines, creating additional options for our customers,” said Rich Scalise, Hearthside Founder and Chairman. “We see synergies in operations, cultures and customers. Most importantly, Oak State is already a mature, well-run operation. We anticipate a smooth and rapid integration.”

Both Hearthside and Oak State are contact manufacturers for premier food companies and global brands.

“This is a functioning operation with an active customer base. It would take two years or more to accomplish this with a greenfield option,” said Dwayne Hughes, Hearthside SVP of Supply Chain. “Instead, we can immediately focus on bringing the facility up to our world-class manufacturing standards, implementing our HPS continuous improvement system and SAP platform.”