Gryphon Investors Acquires Amport Foods and Ann’s House of Nuts

Chicago, IL – October 2010; Gryphon Investors, a San Francisco-based private equity firm, has acquired Amport Foods and Ann’s House of Nuts.

Transaction Summary

City Capital Advisors served as the exclusive financial advisor to Gryphon Investors in its acquisitions of Ann’s House of Nuts, Inc. (“Ann’s”) and American Importing Company, Inc. (“Amport”). Recognizing the complementary nature of these two companies, Gryphon simultaneously acquired Ann’s and Amport, both distinctly well-positioned companies in the attractively growing health snack sector. “Gryphon has proactively targeted the healthy snack sector for nearly two years due to is attractive fundamentals, and we are excited to have found a strategic entry point through these two leading companies,” said Nick Orum, President of Gryphon Investors. This industry segment has proven resilient through the downturn and shows promise of sustainable growth as consumers’ interest in a healthy life style continues and they devote more of their snack purchases to the ‘healthy’ category.” Keith Stimson, Head of Gryphon’s Consumer Products and Services Group, stated, “We believe that both Ann’s and Amport are poised for ongoing rapid growth as they expand their retail and consumer presence while introducing new products. These companies will also serve as a uniquely attractive platform for further acquisitions in the fragmented healthy snacks sector.”

Terms were not disclosed for either deal.

About Ann’s House of Nuts

Ann’s, based in Columbia, MD, is North America’s largest producer of trail mixes and is a leading provider of snack nuts, dried fruits and other high growth, healthy snack products. The Company distributes its snacks through a broad group of outlets including super-center/mass merchandiser retail, grocery store, wholesale club, convenience store, specialty retail, military and bulk industrial channels. Within these channels, Ann’s is the largest provider of private label (store brand) trail mixes globally, and the largest privately-held supplier of private label nuts and dried fruit in the U.S. The Company also markets its high quality products under its own Ann’s House®, Ann’s House of Nuts® and Nature’s Harvest® brands.

About Amport

Founded in 1962 and headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Amport is North America’s largest private label manufacturer and marketer of dried fruits and a leading provider of other high-quality private label and branded snack foods, including nuts, trail mixes, and other wholesome snack food products, as well as related processed ingredients. Amport’s strong reputation is a result of the Company sourcing the best ingredients from around the world, producing high-quality and competitively-priced products, and offering unmatched customer service. Amport maintains a diversified blue-chip customer base with more than 250 customers across North America, including many Fortune 500 companies.

About Gryphon Investors

Based in San Francisco, Gryphon Investors focuses on leveraged acquisitions of, and growth investments in, middle-market companies in partnership with experienced management. Having managed $1 billion of discretionary equity capital, Gryphon has an extensive track record of investing $25 to $75 million of its own capital in companies with sales ranging from $25 to $250 million. Gryphon prioritizes investment opportunities where it can form proactive partnerships with owners and executives to build leading companies, utilizing Gryphon’s capital, professional resources and operational expertise.

About City Capital Advisors

City Capital is a results-oriented investment and merchant banking advisory firm dedicated to delivering business owners optimal performance in capitalizing on the value of their companies. Client engagements are managed by experienced senior bankers who have built successful practices at renowned investment banks, but sought a highly focused environment from which to advise their clients in a highly responsive manner. Advisory capabilities include mergers and acquisitions, typically in the $30 million to $500 million value range, leveraged recapitalizations, private capital formation for growth/acquisition/ownership transition, financial restructurings and managing direct investments. Long standing relationships with strategic buyers and financial sponsors with interests across a wide variety of industries enables City Capital to offer its clients unique and proprietary execution capabilities. Since becoming a FINRA registered broker-dealer in 2007, City Capital has successfully advised on transactions totaling in excess of $1 billion.