As a dominant category leader in refrigerated salad dressings, Litehouse Foods has long paired its humble origins with a track record of market leadership and sustained growth, providing the foundation for this next chapter. Today, the company operates across both branded and unbranded channels, reaching consumers in ways they may not immediately recognize, from packaged salads to prepared food solutions and fully custom solutions under its Value Add & Away from Home division.

In 2006, Litehouse Foods transitioned from a family-owned business to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, making its employees collective owners of the company. By 2014, Litehouse Foods became a 100 percent employee-owned company. That shift prompted a broader effort to align culture, strategy and brand around a shared vision for the future.

“Litehouse Foods has become far bigger than a single product brand,” said Satoru Wakeshima, partner at CBX. “As an employee-owned company with ambitious plans for growth, they needed a strategy that aligned their people, clarified their purpose and positioned them to compete with much larger players in the CPG world. The identity is one expression of that larger shift.”

As part of the repositioning, Litehouse Foods introduced a refreshed corporate identity and brand system designed to unify its growing portfolio. Over the past several years, CBX has collaborated across multiple brands in the ecosystem, including the launch and redesign of Veggiecraft, the redesign and relaunch of Organicville and the recent redesign of Sky Valley.

"We're a company that continues to evolve with our consumers, customers, suppliers, and our employee owners, and we are a different company than we were just a few years ago," said Litehouse Foods CEO Kelly Prior. "This evolution brings clarity to who we've become and the future we are creating together. Our new corporate identity and refreshed purpose are grounded in the same values that have always guided us but expressed in a way that is more relevant and more reflective of our employee owners. This isn't about changing who we are, it's about clearly articulating who we've become, so our teams, our partners and our consumers can feel it in everything we do."

“Over the past five years, we’ve grown from a small-town dressing manufacturer into a diversified CPG business with multiple brands, channels and capabilities,” added Paul Hemingway, vice president marketing and communications at Litehouse Foods. “The portfolio and performance already reflect that progress. This moment is about making that evolution visible — so people understand who we are today and where we’re headed.”

The shift is already being felt internally across the organization. “What really stood out was how quickly people saw themselves in it,” said Hemingway. “It didn’t feel like new language — it felt like who we already are. That created a real sense of ownership and pride across the business. It’s also given us a clearer way to talk about ourselves and make decisions day to day, with a shared language that brings consistency across the organization.”

Looking ahead, the company sees this moment as a foundation for continued expansion. “This is really the beginning of the next phase — expanding how we show up beyond retail, growing our partnerships and continuing to build the business in new directions,” added Prior. 

Wakeshima said, “Litehouse Foods today reflects a broader, more dynamic business — one with the portfolio, capabilities and ambition to grow well beyond its origins. The challenge was articulating that in a way that honors its heritage while setting the stage for what comes next.”