A former owner of Foremost Dairies-Hawaii has become the interim purchaser of a portion of Meadow Gold Hawaii, the state’s largest dairy processor.

Bahman Sadeghi, who closed Foremost and sold its assets to Meadow Gold eight months after buying Foremost in 2004, is the new contender for Meadow Gold’s neighboring island operations.

Dean Foods Co., the Texas owner of Meadow Gold, is selling all of its subsidiaries after filing for bankruptcy in November. Deans Foods revealed that Sadeghi was the bidder for neighboring island operations in documents filed in U.S. bankruptcy court in Texas on Wednesday.

Sadeghi, through MGD Acquisition LLC, intends to pay $ 7 million for the Meadow Gold processing plant in Hilo as well as for distribution facilities on the island of Hawaii, Maui and Kauai which employ 71 workers.

Meadow Gold’s main dairy processing and distribution operation in Honolulu, with 216 employees, is scheduled to close on Thursday, and Dean Foods intends to later sell the plant’s real estate, valued at around $ 30 million. dollars.

Dean Foods announced the partial sale and shutdown plan last week, but has not disclosed the buyer or financial details of the purchase, which is subject to bankruptcy court approval.

The announcement has led many retailers and foodservice customers to seek new suppliers of dairy products to replace Meadow Gold, including milk, butter, ice cream and passion orange guava (POG) juice.

Sadeghi, who is also a former owner of a dairy farm on the island of Hawaii, said his plan was to continue distributing Meadow Gold products statewide and to expand the Hilo facility to restore the lost production capacity of the Honolulu facility, which it could not afford to acquire.

“The goal is to bring Meadow Gold back to where it was,” he said. “I intend to build primarily on the Meadow Gold brand and continue their legacy.”

However, a retired continental dairy farmer involved in a recently canceled purchase of Meadow Gold Hawaii has said he intends to challenge Sadeghi’s deal in bankruptcy court after alleging inappropriate insider trading derailed his plan and led to Sadeghi’s offer.

Retired milkman Mike Pickens alleges Glenn Muranaka, president and CEO of Meadow Gold Hawaii, halted a purchase by Industrial Realty Group LLC that was to lead Pickens to run Meadow Gold Hawaii.

“It really got ugly,” said Pickens, a California resident who trained 8 Cow Dairies to run Meadow Gold Hawaii.

Pickens, who previously tried unsuccessfully to buy Cloverleaf Dairy on the island of Hawaii, alleged that Muranaka had denigrated him and that financial problems and management irregularities emerged as he and Industrial Realty prepared to finalize their purchase earlier this month.

Pickens also suggested that Muranaka was involved in Sadeghi’s offer.

Muranaka said none of the such was true and that his allegiance during a 47-year career at Meadow Gold Hawaii was to the company, its heritage and its employees.

“I am in the same situation with them,” he said.

Muranaka, who retired in 2017 and returned in June, said he was devastated when the purchase of Industrial Realty failed. “We all wanted to protect jobs,” he said.

Sadeghi said Muranaka had agreed to help with a transition and nothing beyond was determined. Sadeghi also said that Muranaka has no stake in the entity that purchases Meadow Gold Hawaii.

Justin Lichter, vice president of Los Angeles-based Industrial Realty, declined to comment on the failed offer, but the company has raised concerns in bankruptcy court.

Industrial Realty, which submitted its offer for Meadow Gold Hawaii on March 31, intended to pay $ 25.5 million and outsource the operation to 8 Cow.

A purchase contract was approved by a bankruptcy judge on April 6, but Industrial Realty terminated the deal after some problems.

Industrial Realty claimed in a lawsuit filed Thursday that Dean Foods disclosed on April 2 that it could not meet a key purchase condition to exclusively pass on the Meadow Gold name because Dean Foods, the largest processor in milk of the country, had made the name in connection with a sale to another company for assets in other markets. Meadow Gold is a non-exclusive Hawaiian brand name.

“These assets were important because the business name is almost 120 years old and is well recognized in the Hawaiian dairy market as a symbol of quality,” Industrial Realty said in its motion, which also referred to other issues not. resolved but did not name them.

Dean Foods said in a filing that Industrial Realty then offered $ 19.1 million for Meadow Gold real estate with no intention of continuing to operate the business.

On April 8, Sadeghi inquired about the possibility of making an offer and followed up on an offer on April 12, according to court documents. Dean Foods announced a day later that Industrial Realty had terminated its purchase agreement.

Wayne Kaululaau, president of Hawaii Teamsters Union Local 996, representing Meadow Gold workers, said loss of Industrial Realty / 8 Cow’s initial offer was unfortunate because it would have kept all employees and their collective agreement. Sadeghi’s offer proposes to renounce the union contract under the bankruptcy rules.

“I am very disappointed with the way things have turned out at Meadow Gold,” he said.

A hearing on the pending sale is scheduled for Tuesday.

Dean Foods expects the sale to close by early May.