Incline Equity Partners, a Pittsburgh-based private equity firm, has acquired Starwest Botanicals, a value-added distributor of high-quality organic botanicals, herbs and spices to specialty retailers, manufacturers and e-commerce sellers.
Headquartered in Sacramento, CA, Starwest is uniquely positioned as a full-service provider due to its extensive global supplier network, international organic import expertise, in-house quality control testing and customizable processing and packaging capabilities. The Company serves as a one-stop-shop solution to a diversified base of more than 10,000 customers across over 3,000 SKUs.
“Incline has an impressive track record of successfully partnering with founder-owned distribution businesses,” said Van Joerger, Founder of Starwest. “With their expertise, we will accelerate growth through strategic investments in marketing and channel management, accretive acquisitions and infrastructure and technology that will improve operational performance.”
“Starwest has a strong customer value proposition from their global supply chain, wide breadth of products and strong processing and QC capabilities,” said Justin Bertram, Senior Partner with Incline. “Their impressive track record of long-term, profitable growth is driven from their diversified and fragmented customer base that caters to consumer staple end markets. We are excited to partner with Van and the management team to support the next phase of growth.”
