Small Market Deal of the Year Century Park Capital Partners

Century Park knew that anything as delicious as would eventually become a big hit in the US – it was just a matter of marketing. By Milana Vinn

hen Century Park veyed the market and found only 20 per- Capital Partners cent awareness of mochi with- fi rst met Mika- in the US, and only 10 percent trial (the waya, a small percentage of the market that had tried family-owned the product). However, among consum- maker of mochi ers who had tried mochi, 90 percent liked Wice cream based in Los Angeles, the fi rm it and became repeat purchasers. knew that they had found a recipe for a “It’s a unique product, but the aware- successful deal. ness was low, so we decided not to over- The company had a great product, complicate it,” says Martin Safara, man- but few consumers knew of its existence. aging director at Century Park Capital. During due diligence, Century Park sur- “We decided: let’s really take advantage of

24 Buyouts • April 2021 Cover story

little more accessible to a general Ameri- The Mochi Ice can audience, and make the package a lot more interesting and a lot more colorful,” Cream Company Sarafa says.

The winning numbers ‘Top-notch team’ In 2016, a year after its acquisition, the company built a new management team, adding a new CEO, CFO, COO, CMO 8.4x and VP of sales – executives who joined from well established brands like McCor- Gross MOIC mick, Carnation, PopChips and Heinz. It also created a new 10-person sales and marketing team. “We really built the top-notch team,” 59% Sarafa says. “We had put into place this Gross IRR new branding initiative, and then fi nally everything was ready to roll it out and bring it to market.” “We decided we were Century Park started with Costco, 20,000 where the product took off quickly, and going to rebrand it and Mochi’s stores, up from 800 then began moving Mochi Ice Cream to all the major grocery chains, including make it a little more Kroger and Safeway. westernized” “When we started bringing this prod- uct to market it became an outsized por- 190 tion of the growth within the ‘frozen nov- MARTIN SAFARA Full and part-time employees, Century Park Capital up from 87 elty’ category,” Sarafa says. In 2019, the brand single-handedly generated 15 percent of the growth with- in the entire $2.4 billion frozen novelty category, according to Sarafa. “So, this 100% one product literally helped drive overall Organic growth of the business with no add-ons growth.” The success didn’t come without in- novation. The new executive team rolled out new triple layer fl avors and created a brand-new vegan mochi option based on its natural attributes, which is great tast- cashew nut cream. would be sold individually, giving cus- ing, it’s handheld and easy to eat; it can Sarafa lists some of the mouthwater- tomers an option to try before they buy a really be a snack and not just a dessert, ing results: “We did things like [create whole pack and give them a chance to try and it’s this nice cool round handheld a] chocolate mochi ball, which the assortment of fl avors. portion-controlled ball of ice cream that would have with choc- Under Century Park’s three-year is actually just 110 calories naturally.” olate mochi on the outside and then a ownership, Mochi established 2,000 Mo- Century Park acquired 100 percent of cherry center, or a dulce de leche mochi chi Bars and more than 18,000 new store- the company in July 2015, when it had 87 ball, which was coff ee ice cream with a fronts, up from 800 at entry. The compa- employees. The strategy was to create a caramel center, or s’mores that would ny also grew the employee count to 190 clear and accessible go-to-market strate- have a Graham cracker ice cream with a full and part-time employees from 87 at gy with new branding and packaging, and marshmallow center.” the time of the deal. to hire a new executive team with a track Confi dent in the product quality, Cen- In January 2020, Century Park sold record of success in consumer-packaged tury Park also came up with what it called the business to Lakeview Capital and re- goods and food distribution markets. its “mochi bar pop-up project.” The idea alized a MoIC of 8.4x and a gross IRR of “We decided we were going to rebrand was to set up these bars in bakery sec- 59 percent. it and make it a little more westernized, a tions of grocery stores where mochi balls A very sweet result. n

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