Smile Tiger Coffee Roasters in Kitchener, Ontario. Happy Belly Food Group press release photo.
Publicly traded Canadian company Happy Belly Food Group signed a definitive agreement to acquire Kitchener, Ontario-based Smile Tiger Coffee Roasters in a deal worth approximately $173,000 USD.
The acquisition represents the first coffee play for Happy Belly, which owns at least nine other quick-service or packaged food brands, including smash burger chain Rosie’s Burgers, breakfast chain Yolk’s and fast-Greek chain Pirho.
According to Happy Belly — which is not affiliated with the Happy Belly private-label coffee brand launched by Amazon in 2016 — the acquisition of Smile Tiger involves cash of $86,800 ($125,000 CAD as of this writing) plus $86,000 more in common shares.
Happy Belly Food Group brands. Press photo.
“We are excited about expanding our coffee capabilities, not only through both additional corporate and franchised retail locations but also in exploring opportunities to provide Smile Tiger products across our existing retail locations going forward,” Happy Belly CEO Sean Black said in an announcement of the deal today. “With our diverse portfolio of breakfast, lunch and dinner brands, Happy Belly consumes a significant amount of coffee, making this expansion a natural fit for cross selling.”
An independent specialty coffee roaster, Smile Tiger was founded by Tony Rubino and Steve Sittler in 2015. The company operates a single retail location in Kitchener, which Happy Belly said will now be a “corporate-owned retail location.”
Said Black, “A key aspect of this acquisition is Smile Tiger’s role as a coffee roaster, enabling large-scale commerce and broad market opportunities including supplying our own brands across the country.”
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