Nature Nate’s Honey and Sweet Harvest Food will be combining its efforts and resources in order to thrive better this 2022 according to a Dallas Morning News article from January 4. They say,

McKinney-based Nature Nate’s Honey Co., the largest honey brand in the U.S., said Tuesday that it’s been sold to one of the largest honey packers in North America, Sweet Harvest Foods.

Nature Nate’s founder Nathan Sheets will continue as CEO and becomes the largest minority shareholder.

Nature Nate’s and Sweet Harvest are now majority owned by Blue Road Capital, a private equity firm that’s been buying U.S. agricultural-focused businesses. Blue Road Capital bought Minnesota-based Sweet Harvest last year, and it also owns California nut grower Diamond Foods and Florida arugula supplier B&W Quality Growers.

“As a small company, it’s easy to grow, but as it gets bigger, it’s a challenge without financial partners,” Sheets said. “This is the appropriate time to achieve our vision of being the most trusted honey brand in the world.”

Meanwhile, the Sweet Harvest Foods is also delighted with its new partnership with Sheets and Nature Nate’s as Sweet Harvest recognizes the latter’s success according to a Business Wire article from January 4. In it they say,

The purchase of Nature Nate’s is the culmination of a passion-filled journey for Nathan “Nature Nate” Sheets. Sheets founded Nature Nate’s in 1997 with a commitment to introduce raw & unfiltered honey to the country while helping people through meaningful employment and a grow-to-give business model. During the past 24 years, Sheets’ leadership helped build raw & unfiltered honey into a subcategory that accounts for 37 percent of today’s U.S. honey category. Meanwhile, Nature Nate’s has donated millions through the company’s Honey Gives Hope initiative.

“Nature Nate’s success demonstrates the value of putting people and the highest-quality products first. It’s our vision to continue as the most trusted honey company,” said Nathan Sheets. “Sweet Harvest and Blue Road believe in that vision, bring expertise in natural foods and agricultural markets and enable us to grow the honey category at an accelerated pace. We’re excited to join Sweet Harvest and create a collaboration that will benefit our consumers and retailers by making premium honey accessible to every home in the country.”

“Sweet Harvest and Nature Nate’s teams align well, from our mission to grow the honey category, to our standards in quality honey, to our company cultures,” said Ken Stickevers, CEO of Sweet Harvest. “I look forward to working with Nate and his team to merge the best insights and practices from each organization to rapidly accelerate the honey and natural sweetener market with our customers.”

Nate’s Nature Honey started off as North Dallas Honey after being bought by Sheets and his wife originally as a hobby then turned to a grand business venture.