Table Talk Pies sold to Minnesota bakery business backed by private equity firm

PHOTO/MATT WRIGHT A production worker at Worcester dessert manufacturer Table Talk Pies adds fruit to the pies.

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Worcester manufacturer Table Talk Pies, which has operated in the city for 100 years, has been sold to Rise Bakery Co., the Minnesota-based owner of a number of food-related brands, which itself is owned by Connecticut-based private equity company.

Table Talk will continue to operate out of its Gardner Street headquarters, and the acquisition will not result in major changes to day-to-day operations, according to Friday press release from Table Talk. The headquarters was completed in October 2021; Table Talk previously operated from a building in Kelley Square.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Table Talk stated this deal is expected to bring additional production volume to its Central Massachusetts facilities but did not offer specifics.

Table Talk has 250 employees in Central Massachusetts, according to the WBJ Research Department, which makes it the 138th largest employer in the region.

Rise Bakery Co. was founded in 2013, according to the company’s website. Brands in Rise’s portfolio include Brill, Best Maid, Henry & Henry, and Karp’s. The bulk of the company’s offerings appear to be selling ready-to-bake wholesale products to bakeries or industrial kitchens, rather than pre-packaged products sold to grocery stores and other retail outlets.

Rise Bakery Co. is part of the portfolio of Olympus Partners, a private equity firm founded in 1988 and based in Stamford, Connecticut. Other investments in Olympus’ portfolio include International Wire Group, a New York-based wire manufacturer, and AmSpec, a New Jersey-based provider of testing, inspection, and certification services for the chemical, oil and gas sectors, according to Olympus’ website.

Olympus was exploring a sale of Rise for a potential value of $2.5 billion as of January, according to reporting by Reuters.

Founded in 1924, Table Talk Pies is led by Isaac Long, who took over for third-generation leader Harry Kokkinis in June 2023. The company produces millions of snack pies each year, according to the press release.

“This is an exciting time for Table Talk Pies, and this agreement with Rise Baking Company will help preserve the Table Talk Pies brand for years to come,” Cliff Rucker, owner and governor of the Worcester Railers and director of Table Talk Pies, said in the press release. “Table Talk is a brand that means so much to so many people. When we entered this partnership, the goal was to make sure the brand would be stabilized and set up for future success. Rise Baking Company is a well-established and highly respected firm in bakery, making this partnership an ideal fit to accomplish that goal.”

Rucker, a member of the 2024 WBJ Power 100, led an effort with other local business figures to save Table Talk in late 2022, when the company faced financial difficulties.

Table Talk Pies join the Worcester Red Sox as a high-profile Central Massachusetts business purchased by a company backed by a private equity firm; the team was sold to New York-based Diamond Baseball Holdings, a company backed by Silver Lake, a California-based investment firm, in December.