Middleby Acquires Josper, Firex

The U.S. conglomerate just keep growing. This spring, Middleby Corp. has already added three commercial foodservice equipment manufacturers to its portfolio of brands. The Chicago company’s acquisitions include, most recently, Josper S.A., a maker of charcoal grill and oven cooking equipment. The 49-year-old company—based near Barcelona in Pineda de Mar, Spain—has approximately US$20 million in annual revenues.

Middleby also boosted its steam cooking equipment offerings by snapping up Firex, the Sedico, Italy, maker of equipment including bratt pans, pasta cookers, tilting kettles, and automatic pans for sous vide or pressure cooking; and JoeTap, an American maker of on-demand nitro and cold brew coffee dispensing equipment. The company, which owns nearly 50 catering equipment brands and more than three-dozen food processing companies, has not revealed financial details of the acquisitions.