Portfolio Companies

Shearer's Foods, Inc. is a leading producer of high quality seasoned snack foods and related products. Founded in 1974, Shearer's is the largest U.S. producer of kettle chips, the fastest growing potato chip category. The Company also maintains a strong position in traditional potato chips, tortilla chips, pretzels, ready-to-eat popcorn, cheese curls, and other snack products. Shearer's serves a blue chip list of co-pack, branded, private label and food service customers.



Other Representative Investments
Below are some examples of companies in which Mistral investment professionals have previously invested, operated, and served on the Boards of Directors.

The Hain Celestial Group is a leading natural and organic food and personal care products company in North America and Europe. Hain Celestial participates in almost all natural food categories with well-known brands that include Celestial Seasonings®, Terra Chips®, Garden of Eatin'®, Health Valley®, WestSoy®, Earth's Best®, Arrowhead Mills®, DeBoles®, FreeBird®, Hain Pure Foods®, Hollywood®, Spectrum Naturals®, Spectrum Essentials®, Walnut Acres Organic®, Imagine Foods®, Rice Dream®, Soy Dream®, Rosetto®, Ethnic Gourmet®, Yves Veggie Cuisine®, Lima®, Grains Noirs®, Natumi®, JASON®, Zia® Natural Skincare, Queen Helene®, Batherapy® and Footherapy®.


Urban Brands is a specialty apparel retailer that focuses on urban and ethnic customers. Urban Brands operates Ashley Stewart, a 175 store chain that sells plus-sized apparel principally in urban markets; and Marianne, a 56 store chain that is a leading retailer of plus-sized and misses' apparel in Puerto Rico.


Brite Media Group, LLC was formed to consolidate small to mid-sized companies specializing in alternative, out-of-home advertising. Since its formation, Brite Media Group has acquired the dominant producer and distributor of coffee sleeve advertising, one of the nation's largest providers of gas station pump top and indoor advertising, and the largest provider of valet and machine-issued parking ticket advertising in the United States.


Charlie Brown's Steakhouse a full-service casual dining restaurant company headquartered in Mountainside, New Jersey, is the largest steakhouse chain in New Jersey with additional locations in New York and Pennsylvania. Charlie Brown's also owns The Jolly Trolley Restaurants and The Office Beer Bar and Grill, as well as the Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse restaurant chain, which operates 30 restaurants in 10 states, primarily along the Eastern seaboard of the U.S.


El Pollo Loco, Inc. is the nation's leading quick-service restaurant chain specializing in flame-grilled chicken and other Mexican inspired entrees. Founded in Guasave, Mexico in 1975, El Pollo Loco's long-term success stems from the unique preparation of its award-winning "pollo" - fresh chicken marinated in a special recipe of herbs, spices and citrus juices passed down from the founding family. The marinated chicken is then flame-grilled, hand cut and served hot off the grill with warm tortillas and a wide assortment of side dishes and salsas prepared fresh every day.


Fiesta Brands, LLC is a follow-on investment to El Pollo Loco. Fiesta will develop and operate a 50-store network franchisee in the Atlanta, Georgia market and become EPL's largest franchisee within the next five years.


Outdoor East, L.P. was a privately held outdoor advertising company, headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina. Outdoor East had a diverse inventory of more than 2,000 bulletins and more than 1,800 posters across five markets in the southeastern United States with dominant or monopoly market positions in each.


The Petersen Companies, Inc. was a leading multi-media marketing solutions and brand development company with a diverse portfolio of publications, television programs, licensing, tradeshows, consumer events, databases, custom publishing and retail promotions. Petersen offered its advertisers the ability to reach both a targeted market within its individual magazines as well as a larger audience by advertising across its broad portfolio. Petersen's internationally recognized magazines included Motor Trend, Hot Rod and Teen.


Triumph Municipal Outdoor, LLC was a holding company used as a platform for acquiring companies and entering into new markets for the construction and operation of advertising display faces for bus shelters, bus sides, airports and other advertising media that are granted through municipal contracts.


Triumph Taxi Outdoor, LLC was a full-service out-of-home advertising company focusing on the sale of advertising in and on taxis, charter buses, moving billboards and in magazines distributed in taxis. Triumph Taxi Outdoor became the largest taxi advertising business in the United States with more than 8,000 taxis under contract in 13 markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Miami and Orlando.


Otis Spunkmeyer is a baked goods distribution company widely known for its flagship line of muffins and cookies. In addition to its famous muffins and cookies, Otis Spunkmeyer also produces frozen cookie doughs and other pastries.


Reddy Ice Holdings, Inc is the largest manufacturer and distributor of packaged ice in the United States, serving approximately 82,000 customer locations in 31 states and the District of Columbia under the Reddy Ice® brand name. Reddy Ice's sales are more than three times those of any other packaged ice supplier in the United States. Reddy Ice's principal product is ice packaged in seven to fifty pound bags, which it sells to a highly diversified customer base, including supermarkets, mass merchants and convenience stores.


PNE Media is an outdoor advertising company along the eastern seaboard with a focus on establishing a significant presence in three geographic clusters: the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area, the New York/Northern New Jersey area and the Carolinas.


Village Voice Media, LLC, is the leading alternative newsweekly publisher in the United States, serving seventeen of the country's top twenty-five markets with a combined audited weekly circulation of approximately 1.8 million. Its publications provide in-depth analysis of local political and community events, thorough coverage of arts and entertainment, sharp editorial commentary and cartoons, and provide a voice for local residents on issues of concern that are not well-addressed by other media. The Company's flagship publication, The Village Voice (New York-based), is the oldest and largest alternative newsweekly in the U.S.