NEW YORK — Private equity firm One Equity Partners plans to buy wholesale baker CraftMark Bakery from fellow investment firm CIC Partners.

Indianapolis-based CraftMark produces bread and cookie dough, muffins, flatbreads, baked cookies and filled dough for quick-service restaurants and in-store bakeries nationwide. The company describes itself as “the bakery category experts in frozen dough and batters” for foodservice and private label.

Financial terms of the deal, announced March 25, weren’t disclosed. The transaction is expected to be finalized in the 2025 second quarter, pending customary closing conditions.

“The North American frozen bakery space is a large growing, and fragmented market in which OEP has previous experience,” said Joseph Huffsmith, a partner at New York-based One Equity Partners. “Our investment in CraftMark presents an opportunity to participate in the attractive foodservice and in-store bakery segments, each with considerable growth potential.”

CraftMark operates a “highly automated” bakery with seven production lines and more than 500 million lbs of production capacity, according to One Equity Partners. Product capabilities at the 345,000-square-foot facility in Indianapolis include thaw-and-sell cookies in various sizes and packaging configurations, pre-deposited muffin batter, frozen pre-portioned cookie dough, ready-to-eat flatbreads, proof-and-bake bread dough, freezer-to-oven sandwich carrier bread dough and other wholesale bakery items.

“We look forward to our partnership with One Equity, an investor with proven expertise in growing specialty baked goods businesses, to build out our operations and usher CraftMark into its next phase of growth,” said Kurt Seagrist, chief executive officer of CraftMark Bakery. “OEP is an ideal partner as we seek to expand through organic growth and acquisitions.”

Haley Citrome, vice president at One Equity Partners, called CraftMark “a leader in the baked goods production space.”

“We look forward to working with the company’s management team to support and grow its blue-chip customer base and expand service offerings through strategic M&A and continued investment into the base operations,” Citrome added.

CIC Partners has been an investor in CraftMark since its founding in 2013. The Dallas-based private equity firm said the bakery — then known as Specialty Bakery — was launched as a ground-up project that year to support the needs of a leading QSR brand. To build a new platform in the commercial bakery arena, CIC teamed up with Bennie Bray, CIC operating partner and a serial entrepreneur, and with bakery industry innovators Ahmad Hamade and Jim Zakian.

In 2015, the bakery finished the construction of a 225,000-square-foot facility in Indianapolis with three automated production lines for key bakery products for Subway, and then in 2016 a fourth line was added. That year, the company also changed its name to CraftMark Bakery. In 2018, CraftMark expanded its facility by about 120,000 square feet and built three more automated production lines to meet rising customer demand, according to CIC.

“Our partnership with the CraftMark founders is representative of our unique partnership model with founder-led businesses and industry leaders,” said Amir Yoffe, a partner of CIC Partners. “We strive to be the partner of choice for executives and entrepreneurs seeking a strategic capital partner to execute on their vision and achieve their goals.”

A new leadership team, led by Seagrist, was recruited in 2022 to further CraftMark’s growth by expanding partnerships with new customers, CIC said, adding that the company has since become a leading supplier of frozen bakery products to the foodservice and in-store bakery channels, employing more than 400 bakers.