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FOOD: More Specialty Items, Wider Distribution Planned
San Diego's Chosen Foods, best known for its avocado-based cooking oils, is now a division of the company that makes its products, Sesajal S.A. de C.V., the Mexico-based harvester and processor of specialty oils, nuts, seeds and ingredients used in Mediterranean cuisine.
Chosen Foods' acquisition by Sesajal was completed in early 2017. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Becoming part of Sesajal, which sells ingredients such as hulled sesame seeds, roasted peanuts and cooked chickpeas to food manufacturers worldwide, is allowing the San Diego company to further broaden its product portfolio and expand its distribution, company executives said.
Chosen Foods founder Carsten Hagen, a naturopathic doctor who traveled extensively, was inspired to start the company in 2009 after spending time in Mexico, where he was exposed to foods unfamiliar to shoppers in the United States. Originally, the company debuted with the tagline "ancient nutrition," a reference to the seeds and plants, such as chia, from which it planned to produce its goods.
Co-founder George Todd, who was introduced to Hagen through a friend, had been working as an investment banker in Seattle before the financial crisis. As business slowed, Todd decided to use his financial acumen to develop a business plan for Hagen's fledgling food firm.
They decided to establish the company in 2011 in San Diego because of its proximity to Mexico, where Chosen Foods planned to source all its ingredients.
Even after relocating from Seattle, where he had lived for 35 years, to San Diego, Todd said he remained uncertain whether avocado oil would be a retail success.
"How many millions would you have to spend to advertise a product and introduce it to the market to get some shelf space?" he said.
In the meantime, the firm socked away some capital by taking...