St. Augustine, FL—In June, WholeFoods reported that Royal Wessanen nv, owner of Tree of Life, based here, wanted to sell this natural products distributor to focus on its European businesses. Now, several months later, Royal Wessanen nv announced it has found a buyer: Kehe Food Distributors of Romeoville, IL. This company is expected to close the deal for Tree of Life U.S. and Tree of Life Canada early this year.

Employee-owned Kehe Food Distributors is said to be the largest distributor of specialty foods and currently distributes more than 40,000 products (which includes natural and organic) to 15,000+ retail stores throughout the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean. Given this history with the natural products industry, Richard Lane, president and CEO of Tree of Life stated, “This is a good fit for Tree of Life.”

Though Kehe doesn’t currently distribute products in Canada, it plans to grow with the Tree of Life business there.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, Feb. 2010