California Custom Fruits & Flavors (CCFF) has acquired the Custom Nutritional Ingredients (CNI) division of Skjodt-Barrett Foods, a 40-year specialist in better-for-you bar layers, fillings, bindings, toppings, and icings. The deal deepens CCFF's custom-formulation bench at a moment when QSR and fast-casual operators are accelerating menu innovation around protein bars, functional snacks, and grab-and-go offerings — all of which demand consistent, scalable back-of-house ingredient supply chains.
CNI will continue operating under the Skjodt-Barrett Foods tradename as a division of CCFF. CCFF is backed by Peak Rock Capital, a middle-market private investment firm.
What the Deal Adds
For foodservice operators and the commercial kitchen programs they run, the acquisition translates directly into expanded ingredient flexibility. CCFF CEO Doug Glade noted that the combined entity already supplies several of the top QSR chains in North America, and that the deal extends the company's ability to support "new and innovative menu items" through greater production capacity and broadened R&D capabilities. Operators specifying commissary or ghost-kitchen production lines that depend on co-manufactured filling and topping ingredients stand to benefit from a supplier with a larger, integrated footprint.
Guy Burton, President of Skjodt-Barrett CNI, described the combination as an expansion of the division's ability to serve customers, suppliers, and employees — signaling continuity for current accounts rather than a brand or product disruption.
Broader Supply-Chain Context
The deal reflects a wider consolidation trend in foodservice ingredient supply, where operators running high-volume commissary and prep-and-storage programs increasingly require ingredient partners capable of custom formulation at scale. Ghost kitchens and centralized production facilities, in particular, lean on co-manufacturers for consistency across multiple dayparts and locations — pressure that rewards suppliers with both depth of product range and manufacturing capacity.
On the dealer-channel side, equipment specifiers outfitting commercial kitchens for QSR rollouts or commissary buildouts should take note: ingredient supply partnerships like this one can influence the mixing, depositing, and enrobing equipment specified for a facility, since the viscosity, moisture content, and batch size of custom fillings and coatings directly affect equipment selection. CCFF says it continues to seek additional acquisitions to further strengthen its value-added capabilities, suggesting further capacity growth is likely.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
