Kohlberg & Company

Who owns Kohlberg & Company?
Kohlberg & Company is a privately held partnership. The firm was founded by Jerome Kohlberg Jr. and his son James Kohlberg in 1987. James A. Kohlberg currently serves as Chairman. In March 2018, Blackstone acquired a minority equity interest in the firm, but Kohlberg remains independently managed. The firm's ownership structure is not publicly detailed, and specific equity percentages among partners have not been disclosed.

Does Kohlberg & Company own Sara Lee?
Kohlberg & Company owns Sara Lee Frozen Bakery, which it acquired from Tyson Foods in June 2018 in partnership with Entrepreneurial Equity Partners. The acquisition included the Sara Lee, Van's, Chef Pierre, and Bistro Collection brands for frozen bakery products. Grupo Bimbo's subsidiary, Bimbo Bakeries USA, owns the Sara Lee brand rights for fresh bakery products, having acquired Sara Lee Corporation's North American Fresh Bakery business in 2010 for $959 million. The Sara Lee brand is therefore split between two owners.

How much money does Kohlberg & Company manage?
Kohlberg & Company manages approximately $17 billion in assets as of December 31, 2025, according to the firm's own disclosures. The firm reports $17.1 billion in regulatory assets under management to the SEC across 37 private funds. Kohlberg has organized 11 private equity vehicles totaling over $14 billion in committed equity capital since its founding in 1987.

What is Kohlberg & Company's largest fund?
Kohlberg's largest fund is Kohlberg Investors X, which closed in September 2024 with $4.3 billion in commitments. The firm also raised approximately $1 billion in dedicated co-investment vehicles alongside Fund X. Over 125 limited partners participated, including public pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, and family offices from the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The previous fund, Kohlberg Investors IX, closed in February 2021 with $3.4 billion.

What companies does Kohlberg & Company own?
Kohlberg's current portfolio includes 29 companies across healthcare, infrastructure services, business services, and food sectors. Notable current holdings include Sara Lee Frozen Bakery, CLEAResult (energy efficiency services), PCI Pharma Services (pharmaceutical manufacturing), Parts Authority (automotive parts), Engage PEO (HR services), OB Hospitalist Group, Nelipak (medical packaging), and Riveron (financial advisory). The firm has completed 95 platform investments and over 290 add-on acquisitions since 1987.

How is Kohlberg & Company related to KKR?
Kohlberg & Company was founded by Jerome Kohlberg Jr., who also co-founded KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) with Henry Kravis and George Roberts in 1976. Kohlberg Jr. left KKR in 1987 over disagreements about strategy, specifically opposing the large, highly leveraged transactions and hostile takeovers that KKR was pursuing. He formed Kohlberg & Company with his son James to focus on smaller middle-market transactions using moderate leverage. The two firms are separate entities with no ownership relationship.

What was Kohlberg's biggest exit?
Kohlberg's largest reported exit was the January 2026 sale of ENTRUST Solutions Group to Leidos (NYSE: LDOS) for approximately $2.4 billion. Kohlberg had acquired ENTRUST, a utility engineering services company, in 2019 and completed a minority recapitalization in 2023 before the full sale. The deal was expected to close in the second quarter of 2026. Other notable exits include the sale of Van's Foods to Cal-Maine Foods in May 2026 and the sale of DecoPac to Sentinel Capital Partners in July 2026.

Is Kohlberg & Company a public company?
No. Kohlberg & Company is a privately held partnership. It is not listed on any stock exchange and does not have publicly traded shares. The firm is registered with the SEC as an investment adviser, which requires regulatory filings and disclosures to limited partners, but does not involve public market reporting obligations. Blackstone acquired a minority equity interest in the firm in 2018, but this did not change the firm's private status.

Kohlberg & Company was founded in 1987 by Jerome Kohlberg Jr. and his son James Kohlberg. Jerome Kohlberg Jr. was already a prominent figure in private equity. In 1976, he had co-founded Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) with his cousins Henry Kravis and George Roberts. KKR pioneered the leveraged buyout as a corporate finance technique and completed landmark transactions including the $25 billion acquisition of RJR Nabisco in 1988.

Kohlberg Jr. left KKR in 1987 due to disagreements over strategy. He did not favor the increasingly large and highly leveraged transactions that KKR was pursuing, including the acquisitions of Beatrice Companies in 1985 and Safeway in 1986, nor the hostile takeover tactics that KKR was employing. Instead, Kohlberg Jr. wanted to return to smaller, middle-market transactions that generated returns through revenue growth and operational improvements using moderate leverage.

He formed Kohlberg & Company with his son James, who was then a KKR executive. The new firm's intent was to concentrate on transactions in the middle market, targeting companies that could be improved through operational changes rather than financial engineering. This philosophy has remained the firm's guiding principle throughout its history.

In its early years, Kohlberg & Company raised relatively small funds and completed a limited number of platform investments. The firm built a reputation for disciplined investing and a collaborative approach with management teams. Jerome Kohlberg Jr. retired from the firm in 1994, leaving day-to-day operations to the next generation of leadership.

The firm grew steadily through the 1990s and 2000s. By 2018, Kohlberg had organized eight private equity funds and raised $7.5 billion in committed equity capital, with 76 platform investments and approximately 170 add-on acquisitions, and an aggregate transaction value of approximately $18 billion.

A significant food and beverage acquisition came in June 2018, when Kohlberg acquired Sara Lee Frozen Bakery from Tyson Foods. The deal was completed in partnership with Entrepreneurial Equity Partners (E2P), a food-sector private equity firm. The acquisition included the Sara Lee, Van's, Chef Pierre, and Bistro Collection brands, along with production facilities in Traverse City, Michigan, and Tarboro, North Carolina. C.J. Fraleigh, a former CEO of Sara Lee North America, joined as Executive Chairman. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Sara Lee Frozen Bakery was established as a standalone company headquartered in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, employing approximately 1,300 people.

The Sara Lee brand has a complex ownership history. Sara Lee Corporation sold its North American Fresh Bakery business to Grupo Bimbo in 2010 for $959 million, with Bimbo receiving a perpetual license to the Sara Lee brand for fresh bakery products. Sara Lee Corporation retained the rights to Sara Lee branded frozen desserts and protein products. Tyson Foods had acquired the frozen bakery business through its 2014 acquisition of Hillshire Brands, formerly Sara Lee's North American meat business. When Tyson divested the frozen bakery unit to Kohlberg in 2018, the Sara Lee brand was effectively split: Bimbo Bakeries USA owns the fresh bakery rights, while Kohlberg owns the frozen bakery business.

In February 2021, Kohlberg closed its ninth fund, Kohlberg Investors IX, with $3.4 billion in total commitments. This represented a significant increase from prior funds and reflected the firm's growing scale.

In September 2024, Kohlberg closed its tenth fund, Kohlberg Investors X, with $4.3 billion in commitments, plus approximately $1 billion in co-investment vehicles. The fund attracted over 125 limited partners globally. Fund X focuses on the firm's core practice areas: Pharmaceutical and Medical Products and Services, Infrastructure Services, Business Services, Financial and Compliance Services, and Healthcare Services.

Also in September 2024, Kohlberg acquired CLEAResult from TPG Growth and TPG's The Rise Fund, in partnership with CPP Investments. CLEAResult is North America's largest energy efficiency, energy transition, and sustainability services provider, headquartered in Austin, Texas, with over 2,700 employees across 46 states and eight Canadian provinces. The terms were not disclosed.

In 2025, Kohlberg continued its investment pace. The firm acquired PCI Pharma Services in partnership with Mubadala in July 2025. In December 2025, Kohlberg acquired Teleflex Medical OEM, a medical device original equipment manufacturer founded in 1943. Also in December 2025, the firm acquired Loenbro, an industrial services company.

January 2026 brought Kohlberg's largest reported exit. The firm announced the sale of ENTRUST Solutions Group, a utility engineering services company, to Leidos (NYSE: LDOS) for approximately $2.4 billion. Kohlberg had acquired ENTRUST in 2019 and completed a minority recapitalization in 2023. The deal was expected to close in the second quarter of 2026.

In March 2026, Kohlberg announced a strategic investment in Cuesta Partners, a technology and artificial intelligence consulting company based in Chicago, in partnership with its portfolio company Riveron. In May 2026, Kohlberg sold Van's Foods to Cal-Maine Foods. In July 2026, Sentinel Capital Partners acquired DecoPac from Kohlberg.

As a private equity firm, Kohlberg does not publish a consumer-facing sustainability report. The firm's approach to environmental and social considerations is integrated into its investment process rather than communicated through public ESG disclosures.

Several of Kohlberg's portfolio companies have their own sustainability programs. CLEAResult, acquired in 2024, is North America's largest energy efficiency services provider and works with utilities, governments, and commercial customers to reduce energy usage and emissions. The company's core business is directly aligned with energy transition goals, and it cites the Inflation Reduction Act and government incentives as growth drivers.

Sara Lee Frozen Bakery does not publish detailed sustainability disclosures. As a frozen food manufacturer with production facilities in Michigan and North Carolina, the company's environmental footprint includes energy use in manufacturing, cold chain logistics, and packaging waste. No public information is available about specific carbon reduction targets, renewable energy commitments, or packaging sustainability initiatives at Sara Lee Frozen Bakery.

Kohlberg itself does not maintain a public B Corp certification or publish ESG metrics. The firm's SEC registration as an investment adviser subjects it to regulatory standards regarding fiduciary duty and client disclosures, but these requirements do not mandate public sustainability reporting.

Kohlberg & Company has a relatively limited public controversy record for a firm of its size and age. The firm has not been the subject of major regulatory enforcement actions, securities fraud allegations, or high-profile public scandals in available sources as of August 2026.

As a SEC-registered investment adviser, Kohlberg is subject to regulatory oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm files Form ADV and is required to disclose material information to regulators and limited partners. No public SEC enforcement actions against Kohlberg have been reported.

The leveraged buyout model that Kohlberg employs has faced broader public criticism, particularly regarding the use of debt in acquisitions, the impact of private equity ownership on employment, and the practice of loading portfolio companies with acquisition-related debt. These criticisms apply to the private equity industry generally rather than to Kohlberg specifically. The firm's emphasis on moderate leverage and operational improvement, as opposed to highly leveraged financial engineering, reflects its founders' original philosophy of avoiding the most aggressive tactics associated with the industry.

Kohlberg's acquisition of Sara Lee Frozen Bakery from Tyson Foods in 2018 preserved approximately 1,160 jobs at the acquired facilities, with team members expected to retain their positions. No significant labor disputes or facility closures have been publicly reported at Sara Lee Frozen Bakery under Kohlberg's ownership.

The firm's 2026 sale of ENTRUST Solutions Group to Leidos for $2.4 billion represents a successful exit but also reflects the common private equity practice of selling portfolio companies to larger strategic buyers after a holding period. Kohlberg held ENTRUST for approximately seven years, during which it completed a minority recapitalization in 2023 before the full exit in 2026.