A private-equity firm that acquired Kronos Foods in February is taking a stake in Grecian Delight Foods, facilitating a merger of the two suburban firms into an estimated $320 million business. Grecian Delight CEO Peter Parthenis Jr. Will remain an owner with his family and run the combined company of 400 employees. Terms were not disclosed.Kronos and Grecian Delight date to the mid-1970s when, along with other startups, they began to turn Chicago into the Silicon Valley or Battle Creek of gyros production. Over the years fast-food customers became accustomed to the sight of rotating cones of compressed meat and the sound of carving knives being sharpened.Like other meat producers, the gyros industry has diversified into plant- and other protein-based foods. Parthenis, 44, a son of Grecian Delight's founder, says the deal will speed that trend and set the stage for acquisitions.The purchase of Kronos by Chicago-based Entrepreneurial Equity Partners is the fourth by private equity since 1994. Kronos CEO since 2013, is leaving. Eirinberg, a former president of Vienna Beef, declined to comment.In addition to the impact the coronavirus is having on the food industry, Parthenis doesn't rule out layoffs or other cost-cutting typically associated with private-equity buyouts and consolidation. Kronos is larger by several tens of millions of dollars in revenue than Grecian Delight, which had about $140 million in revenue last year.'

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We're going to see where we can eliminate duplications,' Parthenis says, while aiming for growth. Grecian Delight's two plants in Elk Grove Village and Kronos' single factory in Glendale Heights will continue to operate, he says. 'The challenge right now is the quick drop in demand these last two weeks.' Among other local gyros-ingredient suppliers are Devanco Foods in Carol Stream, with more than $50 million in annual sales, and Olympia Foods in Franklin Park. Hormel Foods in 2017 bought McCook-based Fontanini Italian Meats & Sausages, whose lineup includes gyros meat.Parthenis' new firm, dubbed World Foods but continuing to be known by its brand names, is likely to be sold again in five to seven years, he says. That's in line with private equity's traditional timeline for holding portfolio companies, though through the Great Recession, by Chicago-based Prospect Partners.'

A lot of time frames got stretched out in the early 2010s,' says Prospect Partners' Louis Kenter, crediting Eirinberg with reviving Kronos. Attempts were made to do deals with competitors, according to Kenter. Parthenis says Kronos has been on Grecian Delight's radar for decades.Mark Burgett, managing partner of Entrepreneurial Equity, which says it invests $25 million to $150 million in transactions focused on food and consumer packaged goods, declined to comment.Devanco CEO and former Kronos executive Peter Bartzis predicts an eventual sale of World Foods to Hormel or another large firm: 'That will be good for the smaller guys. We will survive and thrive in this environment.' Parthenis says the meat side of the business accounts for about half of revenue and is still growing, albeit more slowly than and other products. They include Greek yogurt, flatbreads, falafel and hummus dips and spreads that are sold to grocery, food service and other retail chains such as Sam's Club.What goes into those hunks rotating on a spit, you ask? Across the industry, various mixtures of ground beef, lamb, chicken, pork, bread crumbs and seasonings, all shaped with 60 pounds per square inch of hydraulic force.“The trick,” Kronos founder Chris Tomaras in 2009, “is to use certain forces, like temperature and pressure, to preserve the product as a solid mass, so it doesn’t deteriorate.”.The twirling cooking device is known as an autodoner. Kronos calls its version the Kronomatic.Parthenis says meat delivery sizes range from 10 pounds to 40 pounds.

But at the factory, 500-pound monster slabs are used to produce robotically sliced packaged products, an innovation that has boosted sales to customers like Arby's.