HKW Announces Partnership with Chicago-based Golden Country Oriental Food

The transaction will provide resources for the Company's continued expansion.

INDIANAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HKW, a middle-market private equity firm focused on growth-oriented companies, has recapitalized Golden Country Oriental Food L.L.C. and its wholly owned subsidiary Golden Ocean Seafood Inc (hereafter “Golden Country” or the “Company”). The Lee family will remain significant investors in the Company, and the management team will remain in place. Golden Country is a distributor of authentic ethnic foods primarily servicing the grocery, wholesale, and foodservice channels. Golden Ocean is a distributor of frozen seafood servicing the same channels. The Company carries more than 3,500 dry, refrigerated, and frozen SKUs sourced from over 20 countries.

"The Lee family has built a tremendous business. We are thrilled Sidney Lee, CEO at Golden Country, and his team selected HKW as a partner. Sidney is the CEO HKW looks for: smart, driven, humble, and dedicated," said John Carsello, Partner at HKW. "We have a long track record in specialty distribution and believe we can be a value-added partner for Golden Country as the business enters its next growth phase."

"On behalf of the entire Lee family, we are fortunate to have found such a great partner in HKW. From our beginnings as a small grocery store in the early 70s servicing customers in Chicago’s Chinatown, we have grown to service customers throughout the Midwest," said Sidney Lee, CEO. "This new partnership with John Carsello and his team will enable Golden Country to achieve our ambitious growth objectives and continue to provide our customers with the best product selection at affordable prices."

"Golden Country is poised to benefit from market and demographic trends and is in a good position to accelerate expansion through add-on acquisitions," said Michael Terrell, Vice President at HKW. "We intend to use a comparable playbook at Golden Country as we have in the past on similar investments."

Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP ("Taft") served as legal counsel to HKW. G2 Capital Advisors, LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor to Golden Country.

About HKW

HKW is a middle-market private equity firm investing in companies with talented management teams in the U.S. and Canada. HKW targets companies in the technology, health & wellness, and business services sectors. Since 1982, HKW has sponsored 67 platform transactions of lower middle-market companies throughout North America and 73 add-on acquisitions. For more information on HKW, please visit hkwinc.com.

About Golden Country/Golden Ocean

Golden Country/Golden Ocean is one of the Midwest's largest Asian, African, and Caribbean wholesale food importers and distributors. Since 1972, Golden Country has been importing and distributing shelf-stable, refrigerated and frozen products. For more information on Golden Country, please visit GoldenCountry.com.