EQUITY FUND IS BATTERED (STELLA D'ORO STRIKERS PRESSURE POTENTIAL BUYERS)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07282009/business/equity_fund_is_battered_181740.htm

By JOSH KOSMAN

Last updated: 10:55 am
July 28, 2009
Posted: 2:59 am
July 28, 2009

Just when private-equity firm Brynwood Partners was thisclose to getting out from under its troubled investment in Stella D'Oro Biscuit Co., its ongoing fight with the union repping its workers has sucked it back in.

Brynwood's plan to sell Stella to Lance Inc., the maker of Cape Cod potato chips, appears to be crumbling after the union, tipped off to the sale talks, called for protests last week outside the downtown headquarters of Goldman Sachs, which owns a stake in Lance, a source who has good knowledge of the negotiations said.

This week, the union plans to stage a protest in front of the offices of another Lance shareholder, Barclays.



The union's beef centers on a fear that if Lance bought Stella, production of the company's cookies and breadsticks would move to Lance plants that are spread across the US and Ontario, Canada. Stella's products are currently produced by a single plant in the Bronx.

Brynwood declined to comment. Officials from Lance did not return calls seeking comment.

The collapsed talks mark another setback for Greenwich, Conn.-based Brynwood in its year-long battle with members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Local 50.

Brynwood on June 30 lost a fight with the National Labor Relations Board over the firm's decision to replace union workers, who first went on strike a year ago. The fund then announced that it was planning to shut down the Bronx plant in October because it couldn't operate the business and reinstate the striking workers at their old pay, as was ordered by the NLRB.

The union has asked for an injunction stopping the planned shutdown.

The flap has attracted political attention as well. A union source said Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand were writing letters to the NLRB in support of the injunction, and the City Council is expected today to vote on a resolution supporting the union.

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