Wilson Foods, one of Salt Lake City's oldest food manufacturers, has been sold to Reser's Fine Foods of Beaverton, Ore.
Terms of the deal, which was finalized on July 26, were not disclosed.
Michael Reser, vice president of logistics for Reser's Foods, said the acquisition likely will not result in any layoffs and will not alter the popular Lynn Wilson brand.
"In the Salt Lake and Utah area, the Lynn Wilson name is synonymous with quality," Reser said. "It has a good reputation, and we have no intention of dissolving the brand. Hopefully, we'll enhance it."
Representatives at Lynn Wilson's were not immediately available for comment.
Customers may rest assured Reser's won't be fiddling with Wilson's recipes, Reser said.
"We have no intention of changing anything," he said. "We have no intention of changing any of the flavors or flavor profiles. Lynn Wilson has a very strong brand presence in Utah. It would not be in our best interest to go in there and try to modify that."
Wilson's product line includes its trademark burritos, along with tortillas, tamales and desserts. The company employs 116 people at its Salt Lake manufacturing plant, 1811 W. 1700 South.
Early reports indicated Reser's may hire up to 80 more workers over the next six months to handle the addition of Reser's products to the manufacturing operations. Reser declined to specify an exact number of new hires but confirmed the plant is likely to ramp up in both production and employment.
"We have no intention of decreasing the existing number of employees," Reser said. "With some of the sales strategies we've been considering, we'll be looking to increase employment due to the increase in sales and the volume of production."
For now, Wilson's will operate independently, he said. At the beginning of the year, the company will begin to integrate its operations with Reser's and expand Wilson's market reach.
"The acquisition gives us the ability to cross-sell Reser's items with Lynn Wilson's," he said. "It lets us bring the Lynn Wilson name into other Northwest and West Coast markets that we currently sell in, and to take Lynn Wilson products into the Southeast and Northeast — parts of the country where Lynn Wilson currently doesn't have the logistics to get into the market."
Lynn Wilson Fine Foods began in 1938 in Wilson's Salt Lake home. With his wife Eva, Wilson first made potato salad, tamales and chili for sale in local grocery stores. The business eventually moved from the Wilson kitchen into its current home in downtown Salt Lake City, and the product line expanded to include more than 125 different products.
Reser's also is a family-owned business, founded in 1950 in Cornelius, Ore. The company, now headquartered in Beaverton, specializes in fresh salads (potato and macaroni), Mexican food products, meats and sausages. It employs about 2,200 people nationwide, Reser said. Its main production facilities are located in Beaverton, Washington, Kansas and North Carolina.
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