Puratos to acquire Dawn Foods

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10 Mar 2026

Joanie Spencer

Since 2008, Joanie Spencer has covered the retail and wholesale sides of the baking industry.
Serving associations such as the American Society of Baking (ASB) and BEMA, Joanie is also in demand as an industry presenter on bakery operations and trends. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communication from Rockhurst University and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.

When she’s not running or playing soccer, Joanie spends her time with her husband and 11-year-old son.

CHICAGO — Puratos and Dawn Foods have announced a definitive agreement under which Puratos intends to acquire Dawn Foods, subject to all customary regulatory approvals.

With distinct, yet complementary capabilities, both companies serve professional bakers, pastry chefs, retailers and food manufacturers by translating consumer trends and insights into ingredient solutions.

For more than a century, Puratos and Dawn Foods have each built trusted businesses on the foundation of providing high-quality products, inspiration and partnership to the professional bakery world. Founded in 1919 and 1920 respectively, the two family-owned companies have operated with deep senses of purpose, guided by long-term vision and people-first culture that inspire their teams and customers.

“Dawn has grown into a global business by staying focused on what matters most: our people, our products and the customers we serve,” said Carrie Jones-Barber, Dawn Foods CEO. “As we looked to the future, it was important to find a partner aligned with our values and our long-term view of the business. Like Dawn, Puratos is a family-owned company with a strong heritage and a deep commitment to people, quality and the baking industry.”

With operations across North America, Europe, AMEAP and Latin America, Dawn Foods is widely recognized for its expertise in authentic American sweet baked goods and ingredient solutions for donut, muffin, cookie and brownie applications. Its innovation model is driven by the creation of product concepts, seasonal inspiration and customer-ready solutions that enable bakeries to differentiate and optimize their product assortments.

Puratos complements these core competencies with expertise across bakery, patisserie and chocolate, including fermentation, sourdough, grains and seeds, patisserie classics and chocolate craftsmanship. Its approach to innovation is strongly rooted in ingredient technology and long-term R&D, translating food science into ingredient solutions.

The companies’ combined capabilities will align complementary innovation engines — Dawn’s application-led creativity and Puratos’ R&D-led ingredient technology — along with their respective production models.

Puratos has recognized increasing customer needs for efficient mainstream production and more technology-driven solutions across a wider range of bakery and sweet goods applications. Combining its resources with Dawn’s will reinforce a long-term commitment to not only food science innovation but also the continued development of people and capabilities across both organizations.

“This agreement reflects a major long-term step for Puratos. Dawn Foods is a highly respected company with capabilities that complement our own.” — Pierre Tossut | CEO | Puratos

“This agreement reflects a major long-term step for Puratos,” said Pierre Tossut, Puratos CEO. “Dawn Foods is a highly respected company with capabilities that complement our own. The agreement shows our ambition to further expand our footprint and capabilities within a space we know well, understand deeply and have successfully developed over generations.”

Dawn Foods’ large-scale, standardized manufacturing operates production facilities and a strong distribution network, particularly in North America. Meanwhile, Puratos operates global production with technology-driven manufacturing sites designed to integrate advanced functionality and tailored production through local subsidiaries active in 87 countries.

Through this acquisition, Dawn’s extensive North American distribution footprint and Puratos’ broad international subsidiary network will streamline extensive ingredient innovation throughout the North American and global baking industries.

Puratos indicated that J.P. Morgan Securities plc is acting as exclusive financial advisor, and Allen Overy Shearman Sterling LLP is acting as its legal counsel. Puratos also appointed Bank of America, ING Belgium SA/NV, and KBC Bank NV as joint underwriters and bookrunning mandated lead arrangers (BMLA) for the financing of the acquisition.

Dawn Foods noted BMO Capital Markets Corpas as its exclusive financial advisor, and Winston & Strawn LLP as legal counsel.

Until completion of the transaction, which is subject to all required regulatory approvals, Puratos and Dawn Foods will remain fully independent companies, operating separately, with no changes to day-to-day operations, customer relationships or commercial arrangements. The deal is expected to be finalized by the end of 2026.

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