A 151-Year Legacy Finds Its Next Chapter: Capstone M&A Advises on the Sale of Junket

What does it take for a business to survive 151 years, three continents' worth of ownership changes, and a stint inside one of America's largest food conglomerates and still come out the other side ready for its next chapter?

That's the question at the center of Capstone M&A's latest transaction: the sale of Junket, the iconic American dessert brand, to Junket Brands LLC. It's a deal we're proud to have advised, and a brand history worth telling.

From a Danish Laboratory to America's Kitchens

Junket's story begins in 1874, when Christian Hansen founded a small laboratory in Denmark producing rennet extract for cheesemakers. Four years later, the business crossed the Atlantic, setting up shop in Herkimer County, New York, then the center of the U.S. cheese industry. By 1886, Hansen's Household Rennet Tablets had found a second life: American home cooks were using them to make a simple, custard-like dessert that would eventually take the Junket name.

Over the following century, Junket became a fixture in American pantries, marketed through the “Little Miss Junket” character and generations of recipe booklets. In 1969, the brand's path took an unexpected turn when Kellogg acquired Salada Foods, the company that owned Junket at the time folding a century-old dessert brand into one of the country's largest food companies. Junket changed hands several more times after that before landing, in 2019, with a family-owned operation headquartered in St. Louis.

Why This Deal Matters Beyond the Handshake

For a brand with this much history, a sale isn't just a transaction, it's a transfer of stewardship. That's true of Junket, and it's true of nearly every closely held business Capstone works with, whether the brand has been around for a year or a century and a half.

What made this deal work is what makes most successful lower middle market deals work: a business with real, transferable value, a buyer who saw the opportunity, and a team of advisors and lenders who could carry a transaction of this size and complexity to the closing table.

The Takeaway for Business Owners

Junket's 151-year run is an extreme example, but the underlying lesson applies to any owner thinking about an eventual exit: businesses built to last are businesses built to transfer. The same systems, brand equity, and operational independence that carried a company through a century of ownership changes are exactly what buyers and lenders look for today.

If you're a business owner curious about what your company might be worth, or you're starting to think about what an eventual sale could look like, the Capstone team is here to help you think it through.

Capstone M&A