Panhandle Milling, New Mexico Milling, Specialty Blends, and Specialty Grains Announce Aligned Partnership

DAWN, Texas (Oct. 3, 2016) – Noted milling executives Bryan Ledgerwood, John Mason, John Cure, and Peter Bisaccia are merging their respective companies into a single operating group that will operate as Panhandle Milling. The new family of agriculture businesses will align Panhandle Milling, New Mexico Milling, Specialty Grains, and Specialty Blends into one operating unit under the name Panhandle Milling.

“We aligned these companies to broaden and expand our product offerings to the marketplace as a single company,” said Mason. “The consolidation of businesses makes geographic sense in order to leverage all of the companies’ strengths and remain innovative in the industry,” said Ledgerwood. “We feel strongly that merging the companies and becoming partners will better position Panhandle Milling for continued growth,” explained Mason and Ledgerwood.

Peter Bisaccia will lead the newly formed organization, serving as president and partner. Prior to joining Panhandle Milling, he was Senior Director of Sales for Ardent Mills, where he was responsible for overseeing regional account managers nationwide. Prior to that, Bisaccia served as director of sales for ConAgra Mills in Omaha, where he had responsibility for developing sales strategies for regional personnel throughout the U.S., in addition to marketing, brand planning, and business development strategies to drive revenue growth.  Bisaccia also served as the sales leader for Bay State Milling, coordinating the development of the initial market and sales strategy for the mix and blending business. Bisaccia has served in the grain, blend mixing, and flour milling industry for nearly 30 years.

“Panhandle Milling has an extremely strong leadership team, as well as an experienced and talented sales group. We are well-positioned to continually drive innovation and growth in the market place. Our team has decades of experience in every sector of the grain, milling, and blending businesses,” said Bisaccia.

Randal Robinson, who has more than 20 years of experience with Panhandle Milling, will lead flour sales and Sheena Dau will lead specialty sales. Dau was previously key account manager within the foodservice channel for Ardent Mills. Tim Devey will lead the marketing efforts for the combined companies as the director of marketing.

“We’re making a significant investment in these four companies, and in each business we focused our investments on assets that are nimble and flexible, allowing for unique and customizable products to meet market demands,” said Scott Freebern, vice president of engineering/milling and partner.

Panhandle Milling is a top-of-the-line flour mill that specializes in creating quality flours for use in tortilla, bakery, and food production facilities. Panhandle Milling produces both organic and conventional flour products.

Specialty Blends is a highly automated mixing/blend plant that can produce products from pancake mix to Chicago-style pizza crust mix, with state-of-the-art blenders that can incorporate high concentrations of oils and shortenings into any mix recipe.

Specialty Grains leverages state-of-the-art cleaning and sorting technologies to blend and pack traditional grains, organic grains, non-GMO grains, and organic ancient grains. Packaging flexibility includes everything from 7-ounce standup pouches to 100-pound bags, totes, and bulk capability.

New Mexico Milling is a facility that produces quality flour for tortillas, bread, Indian bread, and pancake mix. The facility will help support expanded markets for Panhandle Milling.