July 9, 2008 - On Monday, we reported to you that Olympus Partners had acquired Ann's House of Nuts, Inc. Today comes an announcement detailing the long path taken by Ann’s prior to its sale to Olympus.

This is a story about a transaction that was done right. The players in this story are a family seeking liquidity, an underperforming company needing help, a hands on consulting firm with both muscles and brains, and an investment bank that knew better then to rush a company to sale.

Founded in 1973, Ann's is owned by the Zinke family and is the largest privately held provider of trail mixes and snack nuts in the world. With a specialization in private label healthy snack foods, Ann's formulates, imports and processes trail mixes, snack nuts, dried fruits and other products for global distribution. Products are sold through the mass merchandise, supercenter, wholesale club, grocery and other retail channels.  Ann's is based in Jessup, MD and has a large production facility in Robersonville, NC.

When the Zinke family began to consider a sale of the business they realized that there was a need to prepare Ann’s for sale. The family had approached mid-market investment bank Lincoln International to handle the sale of the business and Lincoln advised that to realize maximum value the family should work with ForteCEO, a Chicago based senior executive consulting firm.

ForteCEO is unique in the consulting business in that all of its consultants are former CEOs or senior executives with track records of business success. Each of ForteCEO's interim executives has more than 20 years of hands-on operating and leadership experience (www.forteceo.com). ForteCEO worked extensively with Ann's owners and senior management for 20 months leading up to the sale. The firm worked alongside the Ann's team to restructure the organization and significantly improve operations.

As a result of the work done by ForteCEO, the valuation of Ann’s was sharply increased and Lincoln International was able to market the company to many potential domestic and international acquirers ultimately leading to the sale of the company to Olympus.

"ForteCEO's operational improvements, the talents of their team members, and their ability to outline a pathway to future improvements were critical in our decision to fund this transaction,” said Manu Bettegowda, Partner of Olympus Partners.

"ForteCEO is a professional and highly competent partner that helped me achieve my goals as a business owner," said Ed Zinke, Founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Ann's. "ForteCEO's consultants provided us with strategic guidance and implementation expertise that was invaluable to bringing the company to a sale. Our 20-month partnership was very rewarding personally and professionally."

With the sale of Ann’s to Olympus, ForteCEO lead consultant George Lampros will assume the role of Chief Executive Officer of Ann's, effectively ending his tenure as a highly-regarded member of ForteCEO's consulting group. The final transaction was contingent on ForteCEO's consultants becoming Ann's management team. The Zinke family will continue to be involved and maintain an ownership stake in the business.