Great Kitchens Food Company, Inc., a newly-formed portfolio company of Greenwich-based private equity firm Brynwood Partners VIII LP, has acquired the take-and-bake pizza business of Aryzta North America. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The acquisition immediately makes newly-formed Great Kitchens a leader in the private label take-and-bake pizza market, operating a 165,000-square-foot crust manufacturing plant in Chicago Heights, Ill., and a 155,000-square-foot topping plant in Romeoville, Ill. The two plants employ approximately 700. The company’s headquarters will be in Romeoville. Admir Basic has been named president and chief commercial officer of Great Kitchens, while Bill Steckel will join Great Kitchens as its chief financial officer.

“We are thrilled to announce the creation of Great Kitchens,” said Henk Hartong III, chairman and chief executive officer of Brynwood Partners.  “We are excited to return to the private label pizza space with this new investment. Our prior investment in the private label frozen pizza space with Richelieu Foods, Inc. was very successful, and we are confident in the prospects for Great Kitchens. We look forward to bringing a significant level of investment in new products and recipe innovations to our retail partners through our best-in-class facilities.”

Brynwood acquired a majority ownership in Braintree, Mass.-based Richelieu Foods, Inc. in April 2005 from the domestic and overseas private equity funds of Weiss, Peck & Greer Investments, an affiliate of Robeco USA. The investment in Richelieu Foods was sold to Centerview Partners Holdings LLC in 2010.

The disposal of the take-and-bake pizza business represents one of the first steps in Aryzta’s plans to reshape its portfolio. On Dec. 1, the company announced plans to restructure its business model into a multi-local, lean and agile structure.