Portfolio

Case Study

Tillamook Country Smoker

Founded in 1975, Tillamook Country Smoker is a leading producer of premium, protein-rich meat snacks, including beef jerky, beef sticks, and smoked sausages made from simple, all-natural ingredients. The company’s products are sold nationwide across all major channels of trade, including grocery, club, mass, convenience, and e-commerce.

Headquarters

Bay City, OR

Investment Date

2017

Exit Date

2026

Sector

Consumer

Growth Highlights

$100M+

Zero Sugar Product Line
Revenue, Built from Scratch

3x

Revenue & EBITDA
Growth

~$200M

Revenue at Exit

480

Employees Across Two
Oregon Facilities

Transaction Highlights

Insignia developed an investment thesis focused on better-for-you snacking and identified meat snacks as one of the fastest-growing categories in the center store. Tillamook Country Smoker stood out as an authentic, third-generation family brand with a loyal Pacific Northwest following, real hardwood-smoked product quality, and clean-label positioning that was underexposed to the national market.

The founding family was seeking a partner who would preserve the brand’s heritage and its role in the Tillamook County community while providing the capital and operating capability required to expand beyond a regional footprint. Insignia’s experience in branded snacking, including Truco Enterprises and Century Snacks, aligned closely with the family’s ambitions for the business.

Insignia invested in Tillamook Country Smoker in May 2017, with family shareholders retaining a meaningful equity stake alongside the firm. Over the course of the partnership, Insignia worked with management to professionalize operations, expand manufacturing capacity, and build a nationwide branded meat snack platform.

Investment Thesis

  • Attractive exposure to the large and growing meat snacks category, supported by consumer demand for high-protein, low-sugar, clean-label snacking
  • Authentic, differentiated brand with more than four decades of heritage, real hardwood smoking, and all-natural ingredients that command premium shelf positioning
  • Substantial white space to expand a predominantly regional brand into national distribution across grocery, club, mass, convenience, and e-commerce
  • Owned manufacturing with clear opportunities to invest in capacity, automation, food safety, and product flow to support multi-year volume growth
  • Direct synergies with Insignia’s existing snacking investments across retailer relationships, sourcing, and commercial playbooks

Value Creation

Insignia worked alongside the founding family and management team to transform a predominantly Pacific Northwest regional brand into a national meat snack company. Through sustained investment in leadership, product innovation, manufacturing capacity, and national distribution, the company more than tripled revenue and EBITDA, reaching nearly $200 million in annual sales.

Enhanced Talent
& Leadership

  • Recruited a professional executive team around the family’s operating legacy
  • Added functional depth in sales, marketing, supply chain, and finance to support a national customer base
  • Strengthened governance with an active board and CPG-experienced independent directors

Strengthened Brand
& Product Portfolio

  • Repositioned the brand around clean label, high protein, and zero sugar to align with better-for-you snacking demand
  • Broadened the portfolio across jerky, meat sticks, and smoked sausages with new formats and flavors
  • Extended the brand into e-commerce while protecting its regional authenticity and community roots

Scaled Manufacturing
Capacity

  • Invested in plant upgrades that improved employee safety, product flow, and throughput at the Bay City facility
  • Grew production capacity roughly five-fold across two Oregon facilities
  • Added automation and food safety capability while preserving the real hardwood smoking process central to product quality

Expanded National Distribution

  • Expanded distribution from a regional footprint to all major channels of trade nationwide
  • Grew club, mass, and grocery penetration alongside the company’s historically strong convenience channel presence
  • Leveraged retailer relationships and commercial playbooks from Insignia’s broader snacking portfolio

Instilled Operating
Discipline

  • Implemented business planning, KPI management, and trade spend discipline to support profitable growth
  • Managed protein cost volatility through improved sourcing, pricing, and yield management
  • Added private label capability to deepen retailer partnerships

Invested in Community
& Culture

  • Preserved the company’s role as a major employer in Tillamook County, growing to approximately 480 employees
  • Maintained the founding family’s values and shared commitment to the brand’s community through the partnership
  • Invested in employee safety and working conditions alongside capacity expansion

Our family spent four decades building this business, and what mattered most to us was finding a partner who understood what it means to this community. Insignia honored that from the beginning.

Dick Crossley, Co-Founder of Tillamook Country Smoker

The Outcome

Sold to Second Nature Brands

In July 2026, Insignia completed the sale of Tillamook Country Smoker to Second Nature Brands, a portfolio company of CapVest Partners, capping a partnership that expanded a third-generation family business from a regional Pacific Northwest brand into a nationwide clean-label meat snack company. The transaction marked Second Nature Brands’ first investment in the protein snacks category.