Metropoulos & Co.

Principals C. Dean Metropoulos, Evan Metropoulos, and Daren Metropoulos lead the firm. Chief Investment Officer Howard Altman manages capital allocation, due diligence, and portfolio risk, and serves on the board of CEC Brands. The family principals remain the ultimate decision-makers on acquisitions and strategy.

Metropoulos & Co. uses family capital to purchase businesses it can operationally transform through management changes, repositioning, and refreshed branding. The firm prefers to hold assets until the turnaround is complete, as it did with Pabst Brewing Company, which was rebuilt as a virtual brewer before being sold.

The firm is family-owned and invests its own capital. It has also acted as a sponsor and co-investor alongside partners such as the Gores Group in several special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), including those that took Hostess Brands and Luminar public.

The primary focus is food and beverage, consumer products, and select diversified industrial holdings. Representative investments include Hostess Brands, Utz, Ghirardelli Chocolates, Pinnacle Foods, Morton Salt, and Briggs & Stratton.

BlueTriton Brands, formerly Nestlé Waters North America and a Metropoulos portfolio company, merged with Primo Water Corporation in November 2024 to create Primo Brands. The merged entity trades on the New York Stock Exchange, and CIO Howard Altman was a board observer at BlueTriton before the merger.

Metropoulos & Co. operates through buyouts, growth equity, restructurings, and turnarounds of established businesses. It is not structured as a venture capital firm and does not target seed or early-stage technology startups.

The firm sources opportunities through the reputation and network of the Metropoulos family, developed across four decades of acquiring and reimagining iconic consumer brands. Its track record with companies like Pabst, Hostess, and Ghirardelli often brings distressed or neglected corporate carve-outs directly to the principals.