ByHeart acquires packaging company Cascadia Nutrition

Baby nutrition company ByHeart has agreed to acquire Cascadia Nutrition, a packaging and blending facility in Portland, Oregon.

The purchase will help ByHeart build quality infant formula production in the US by enabling complete end-to-end control and oversight of production manufacturing.

Ron Belldegrun, CEO and co-founder of ByHeart, said: “As a company committed to parents, our goal has always been full ownership and oversight of our end-to-end manufacturing process. We managed to achieve that goal with the exception of packaging which was conducted by a reputable third-party partner while we worked towards bringing that piece in-house. This acquisition will enable full control over our manufacturing process so that we can deliver a product at the highest standards of quality, safety and reliability for our ByHeart families.”

Cascadia has packed infant formula for international brands for five years and pending FDA registration, the acquisition will enable the facility to begin serving the US market, strengthening the country’s resilience against future shortages.

Ashley Balogh, president of Cascadia, commented: “We are very pleased to join forces with a partner who shares our vision of bringing high-quality infant formula to babies and parents everywhere, an urgency widely recognised during the current infant formula shortage. As a result of its five-year regulatory and clinical journey, ByHeart is now uniquely positioned to serve the needs of the US infant formula market with the only new dedicated packaging facility, pending FDA registration.”

ByHeart is acquiring Cascadia from the Balogh family and DPI Group, a non-profit organisation “dedicated to bringing transparency to the packaging process while identifying and creating job opportunities for individuals with employment barriers”. As part of the acquisition, ByHeart will maintain the facility’s existing workforce and also employ members of the Balogh family.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.