NORTH KINGSTOWN – Following a $17.8 million acquisition of Galaxy Nutritional Foods Inc. in January, Canada-based GreenSpace Brands Inc. is looking to expand its footprint in the United States.
Galaxy Nutritional Foods, owner of the Go Veggie brand of nutritional foods, is based in North Kingstown. It was acquired by Toronto-based GreenSpace Brands in January for about $17.8 million.
Galaxy Foods CEO Rick Antonelli said the deal gives GreenSpace a stronger foothold in the U.S. market and allows Galaxy Foods to sell its brand in the Canadian market.
“We think it will be a real breath of fresh air for Galaxy,” Antonelli said.
Antonelli, a former executive at the Fortune 500 company United Natural Foods Inc., helped purchase Galaxy Foods with the Connecticut-based venture-capital firm Mill Road Capital in 2008. He subsequently helped move the company to Rhode Island from Florida.
The company, which has been around since the late 1970s, produces vegetable-based products, which Antonelli said has grown as a food category in the United States.
“Back in the 1970s it was on the fringe of society and now it’s very mainstream,” he said. “It’s not just vegetarians and vegans eating vegetable-based diets.”
The company in North Kingstown will eventually assume the GreenSpace name, and Antonelli hopes the deal will help grow employment from its current level of 20 employees.
Eli Sherman is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Sherman@PBN.com, or follow him on Twitter @Eli_Sherman.
