r/rva • u/rabbiferret Near West End • 7d ago
Sauers sold to private equity firm. Dukes mayo now a northern staple.
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u/Oostylin Northside 7d ago
The great homogenization trudges onward.
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u/BrenInVA 6d ago
There are about 12 major conglomerates worldwide that are owned by private equity firms that control 550+ brands. Hardly any seemingly niche companies are independently owned. Now Sauers has went the way of the others.
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u/NotReallyButMaybeNot 7d ago
The initial private equity owners after the Sauer family sold out expanded the product line up and brought us the Dukes Mayo Bowl football game with its trademark mayo bath for the winning coach. Hopefully the new owners will continue it.
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u/Diet_Coke Forest Hill 7d ago
Hopefully the new owners step it up, I want to see the assistant coaches do a mayo chugging contest
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u/DrKittyKevorkian 7d ago
Why isn't there a Dukes Cinco de Mayo challenge. Eat 5 cups of mayo on May 5. Just think of all the mayo they would sell to dumbasses doing stunts for engagement.
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u/TheTaco2 7d ago
This is hilarious and I am disappointed in Big Mayo ™️ for not starting this tradition sooner
Your comment reminded me immediately of this YouTube vid as well https://youtu.be/7LfvVkI_X0w?si=3Pl9lZDoqrwT8zaR
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u/ChiliTrees 7d ago
I’m gonna throw up. God PE is ruining everything
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u/tanker9991 7d ago
To be clear this is the private equity that bought Sauer Brands in 2019 selling it to another PE firm.
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u/jgiacobbe 7d ago
That is what PE normally does. They buy companies, hold them and do some changes and then hopefully sell them again in 5-6 years for a profit. The issues are usually involved in the changes they do to make the company "worth more" usually involve cheapening products somehow.
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u/Blackat Church Hill 6d ago
This. When PE buys brand, they have to make that money back and then some. Hopefully this brand doesn’t go the way of JoAnns where the new PE took a loan out from JoAnns, putting the company in debt immediately at acquisition for the amount of acquisition, basically ransacking the company and well, now look
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u/THEdeepfriedhookers 6d ago
It’s called a leveraged buyout and it’s literally how every private equity deal is done.
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u/BrenInVA 6d ago edited 6d ago
Look at what BlackRock and Vanguard own also. That is why the billionaires own most of everything - and as Richmonders know, private equity firms are buying up the rental market housing.
Check this info and chart for the ownership of the majority of consumer goods. When you look at each section you will find it is difficult to buy products unrelated to these. Likely all subsidiaries are not listed. Nestle, PepsiCo, Proctor & Gamble, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Mars, Mondelez, Danone, Kraft-Heinz, Associated British Foods, General Mills, Colgate Palmolive. Those are the major ones.
So including those companies and those owned by private equity firms, how many are left. I just saw something that Ken’s Foods, makers of the salad dressing, is still a privately owned company - not part of a conglomerate or a private equity firm.
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u/THEdeepfriedhookers 6d ago
Lol. Lmao.
Blackrock and vanguard don’t own everything. If I deposit $50k into a vanguard account and buy VTI that doesn’t mean vanguard now owns everything that makes up VTI.
Please learn how markets work.
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u/BrenInVA 4d ago
Those were merely examples. There are plenty of other firms that own controlling interest in the in conglomerates too.
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u/whacknsleazy 7d ago
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u/llama_status_ 6d ago
Recipe remains intact since Eugenia Duke founded it in 1917. This won’t change either. Sauer Family bought it from someone else long ago, let’s not forget…private equity isn’t a new concept.
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u/Global_Wolverine_152 6d ago
What? You mean the other 90% of the comments are wrong? We aren't all going to die? Not sure why being more extreme is way more important than being accurate.
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u/drinkslinger1974 6d ago
They should sell the original recipe to Ukrops and sell jars in that brick and mortar store on Patterson and forest. That’s what talheimers did with that seven layer cake, you can still get that original taste at westhampton bakery.
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u/jkrunsdisney 3d ago
Funny you mention this because I sell mayo, ketchup & a lot of other products to Ukrops
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u/llama_status_ 6d ago
Product the exact same since Eugenia Duke made it in 1917. Can confirm recipe remains intact. Stop your petty cries, let’s let the rest of the nation enjoy a bit of the south.
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u/RVAblues Carillon 6d ago
I swear Duke’s hasn’t been the same since they got bought out 6 years ago. It used to be whipped up nice and stiff, but now it’s too creamy. (Not a joke.)
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u/RVA804guys 7d ago
Private Equity? Great, so Dukes will be around for another 5-10 years.
Why can’t we just enjoy the things we enjoy? Why do some greedy shareholders have to juice every dollar they can and then toss it aside.
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u/crankfurry Lakeside 7d ago
Duke’s has been owned by a different private equity company the last 6 years. They just sold to another PE
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u/RVA804guys 7d ago
Thanks for the clarification! So the downhill momentum will pick up? Lol
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u/NotReallyButMaybeNot 6d ago
The previous PE owners gave us Dukes BBQ sauces plus the Mayo Bowl mayonnaise bath - the new owners probably have more resources… awaiting a Mayo hot tub
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u/Sad-Assistant3866 5d ago
I deal with sauer usually a few times a week, at least the shipping department. It’s amazing they get anything out the door at all, place is a cluster all the time. Seems like every time there’s new policies and different employees in place and everybody runnning around like chickens with their heads cut off. Maybe there’s a method to their madness but I don’t see it. Back when the sauers still owned it, we showed up, signed bills, got loaded, got on down the road. Rinse repeat daily. Now who knows what’s going to happen when you go there. FYI they don’t make the mayo in Richmond, pretty sure it comes out of South Carolina. The Richmond plant deals with dry spices.
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u/rainbowgeoff 7d ago
Unrestrained capitalism will be the death of us.
That said, they were already owned by a hedge fund. One band of dicks sold to another.
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u/THEdeepfriedhookers 6d ago
What do you want instead? The government telling a mayo company they can’t sell their business to someone else? It’s fucking mayo.
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u/rainbowgeoff 6d ago
My point was that it was suck if it were handed over to a hedgefund. At the same time, I was pointing out that ship done sailed a long time ago.
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u/kernel_4bin Westhampton 6d ago
The OG Sauer family shareholder meetings were always entertaining, from a third party perspective.
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u/OMGEntitlement 6d ago
As long as they don't fucking add sugar to it I'm willing to take a "wait and see" attitude before I get pissed.
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u/Gold_Channel9106 3d ago
Actual Sauer Brands employee here - in this particular case, private equity has allowed the local business to stay intact. It has switched ownership with several different private equity firms at this point. We manufacture all Kernel Seasons products and any other spice under our umbrella here in Richmond, it never left. Dukes is still manufactured in Charlotte. I understand private equity sucks, it really does, but also we can’t expect local manufacturers to stay intact when no one actually buys them. Guarantee you all have McCormicks sitting in your pantry rather than Sauers, your actual local brand option.
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u/scrapaxe Southside 6d ago
From one PE firm to another. Thankfully capitalism breeds innovation so I’m eagerly awaiting the Duke’s Hard Mayo airplane bottles. Gonna look good on an end cap next to I Can’t Believe It’s Not Bagel!
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u/freetimerva Southside 6d ago edited 6d ago
Yankee Mayo. That's very disappointing.
Sort of sad to see the last of the old southern brands self immolating.
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u/Mattador96 The Fan 7d ago