Who Owns Penford?

Penford was founded in 1921 as an independent specialty starch company in the United States. The company's origins were in the processing of potato starch, a technically demanding segment of the starch industry that requires specialized agricultural sourcing, processing equipment, and chemistry expertise distinct from the corn starch processing that dominates the North American starch industry.

Throughout the mid-20th century, Penford developed proprietary technologies for producing modified starches and specialty starch derivatives with specific functional properties. Modified starches are chemically or physically treated to alter their behavior in food and industrial applications, enabling manufacturers to achieve specific texture, stability, viscosity, or adhesion properties that native starches cannot provide. Penford's expertise in modification chemistry became a core competitive asset.

Penford expanded its operations to include manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada, and Australia, serving diverse customer bases across food manufacturing, paper and packaging, and industrial applications. The company's food ingredients division focused on potato starch derivatives for applications including soups, sauces, dairy products, and processed meats, where modified potato starches provide freeze-thaw stability and texture properties valued by food manufacturers.

By the early 2000s, Penford operated as a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker PENX, with annual revenues in the range of $400 to $500 million. The company's business was divided between food ingredients and industrial starches, with the food ingredients segment commanding higher margins due to the value-added nature of specialty formulations.

In 2014, Ingredion Incorporated announced its intention to acquire Penford as part of its specialty ingredients growth strategy. The acquisition was completed in July 2015 for $340 million in cash. At the time of closing, Penford had annual revenues of approximately $467 million and operated six manufacturing plants with approximately 445 employees across its North American and Australian operations.

Ingredion's rationale for the acquisition was to expand its specialty starch portfolio, particularly in potato-based derivatives, and to add Penford's food ingredients customer relationships to its existing network. The deal also added Penford's industrial starch business, which served the paper and packaging industry with adhesive and coating starches.

Following the acquisition, Penford's operations were integrated into Ingredion's broader ingredient solutions platform. The Penford brand has been maintained for certain product lines within Ingredion's portfolio, particularly in the specialty food ingredients segment where the brand carries recognition among food manufacturers.

Ingredion's subsequent acquisitions, including Kerr Concentrates (2015), TIC Gums (2016), PureCircle (2020), and KaTech (2021), continued the specialty ingredients expansion strategy that the Penford acquisition helped establish.