Pulmuone Co., South Korea’s largest tofu maker, has acquired tofu business from Vitasoy USA Inc., a Massachusetts-headquartered leading provider of tofu in the United States, expanding its footprint across the U.S.

Pulmuone announced on Thursday that it signed an agreement with Vitasoy to take over the latter’s tofu business for $50 million through its new subsidiary Coast Acquisition Company. The acquisition was financed by Pulmuone Copa Fund jointly raised with Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS). The pension fund owns a 50 percent stake.

Established in Ayer, a town in Massachusetts in 1979, Vitasoy has produced tofu, soybean milk and rice noodle. Vitasoy controls 65 percent of the U.S. tofu market with annual sales of 60 billion won ($51.4 million) from the business.

The U.S. company has supplied tofu under brands of Nasoya and Azumaya to about 20,000 supermarkets across the country, including big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores, Safeway and Ahold USA. The company has wide distribution network across the country. Nasoya and Azumaya are top tofu brands in the U.S.

Pulmuone entered the U.S. market in 1991 to target the local tofu-based food markets by setting up an LA affiliate. In 2004, the company acquired Wildwood Natural Foods, selling tofu, soybean processed products and sauces to Whole Foods Market, the country’s largest supermarket chain.

The Korean company also acquired chilled food company Monterey Gourmet Foods in 2009 to offer pastas and sauces to large membership-based retailers such as Costco Wholesale and Sam’s West.

Pulmuone Foods USA has run plants at Gilroy and Fullerton in California to produce pasta sauces and tofu. The company has a tofu factory in Tappan, New York, but the business in the eastern part of the country was insignificant because it is headquartered in Los Angeles.

However, with the acquisition of Vitasoy, Pulmuone will be able to go wide across the U.S. The company also aims to further expand business into pasta and sauce markets using Vitasoy’s marketing network.

“We will drastically save logistics costs on geographical advantages and create cost synergy through business integration and process simplification,” said Pulmuone.

By Seo Jin-woo

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