Lyco Manufacturing, Inc.

What Lyco Manufacturing, Inc. does

Lyco Manufacturing, Inc. is a privately held, Wisconsin-incorporated manufacturer of commercial food processing equipment headquartered in Columbus, Wisconsin. The company designs, produces, and services a broad portfolio spanning blanchers, cookers, coolers, pasteurizers, peelers/washers/scrubbers, green bean processing lines, material handling equipment, soak tanks, and wastewater/process screens. Core proprietary technology centers on the patented Hydro-Flow agitation system, rotary drum designs with over 750 variations, the Traveling Spray Clean-In-Place system, and the Micro-Drum Screen with 0.008-inch openings; the company reports an installed base of more than 850 cooking/cooling machines globally and over 2,400 liquid-solid separation screens across North America.

Revenue is generated primarily through one-time capital equipment sales ranging from $50,000 to $500,000+ per unit, supplemented by OEM replacement parts for the installed base and a comprehensive service offering that includes startup and commissioning, audits, training, retrofits and upgrades, emergency repair, testing in the in-house lab, and on-site demo-truck evaluations. Go-to-market is consultative direct enterprise sales targeting food processors, with the company claiming 50 of the Top 100 Food Companies in North America as customers across pasta, rice, dry beans, vegetables, meat/poultry/seafood, pet food, slaughter, rendering, and plant-based protein applications. The CEO is Steve Hughes; the firm operates without parent-company, venture, or external funding and is led as an independent closely-held business.

Operating geography is anchored in the United States with global equipment shipments, and the product roadmap is actively expanding through the 2025 launch of Versa-Flow and the 2024 introduction of Temper-Flow, alongside continued investment in water reuse and wastewater treatment solutions for food processors facing rising sustainability and regulatory pressure.

Name

Lyco Manufacturing, Inc.

Legal name

Lyco Manufacturing, Inc.

Website

https://lycomfg.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1985

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Lyco Manufacturing is a privately held Wisconsin-based designer and manufacturer of commercial food processing equipment — including blanchers, cookers, coolers, pasteurizers, peelers, and wastewater screens — serving enterprise food processors such as 50 of the Top 100 Food Companies in North America.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Columbus

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Operations, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Food Processing Equipment Sales: Sale of commercial blanchers, cookers, coolers, pasteurizers, and wastewater processing equipment to food manufacturers. Equipment ranges from $50,000 to $500,000+ depending on specifications and capacity requirements.
2. Replacement Parts: Highest quality OEM replacement parts with prompt shipping for installed equipment base of over 2,400 screens and 850+ cooking/cooling machines.
3. Service and Support: Comprehensive services including startup/commissioning, equipment audits, training, retrofits/upgrades, emergency repair, testing & simulation lab, and demo truck evaluations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Lyco Manufacturing designs and builds commercial food processing machinery, including rotary drum blanchers, steam blanchers, cookers, pasteurizers, pouch and particulate coolers, green bean processing lines, peelers/washers/scrubbers, soak tanks, and wastewater/process screening systems. The company also provides OEM replacement parts and field services such as startup/commissioning, audits, training, retrofits, and emergency repair for food processing plants in North America.

Product overview

Lyco Manufacturing is a world-class manufacturer of commercial food processing machinery with over 850 cooking/cooling machines sold, over 2,300 liquid-solid separation screens in operation, 350 root crop peelers/scrubbers sold, and hundreds of snap bean processing machines sold. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of blanching, cooking, cooling, and wastewater processing equipment that solves supply chain gaps, production challenges, capacity issues and labor shortages for food processors. Core products include the Rotary Drum Blancher, Cooker-Cooler, Vapor-Flow Steam Blancher, Clean-Flow, Versa-Flow, and Chill-Flow systems for blanching, cooking, and cooling applications. The wastewater processing line includes External-Flow Screens, Sanitary Zero Maintenance Screens, Micro Drum Screens, and Water Reuse Systems for liquid-solid separation. Specialized equipment includes War Horse/Bull/Raging Bull peelers, green bean processing equipment (Cluster Cutters, Snippers, UBR), material handling systems (LAD, Column Dumpers, Sanitary Feed Systems), and Heavy Duty Soak Tanks. The product ecosystem is unified by shared technologies like Hydro-Flow agitation, Clean-In-Place systems, and PLC control systems. Lyco serves 50 of the Top 100 Food Companies in North America across applications including pasta, rice, dry beans, vegetables, meat/poultry/seafood, slaughter, rendering, pet food, and plant-based proteins.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Rotary Drum Blancher Rotary drum blanching equipment providing uniform heat treatment of food products with increased capacity, reduced process times, and 40% faster cooling than conventional systems. Designed for commercial food processors.
• Cooker-Cooler Combined cooking and cooling system for processing various food products with uniform heat transfer and self-contained Clean-in-Place systems, targeted at commercial food manufacturers.
• Vapor-Flow Steam Blancher Steam blancher that can switch to water cooking by turning a valve, using 50% less energy and 90% less water than water blanching and increasing recovery by 1-3%, intended for commercial food processing lines.
• Clean-Flow®

Quantifiable outcome

• 10-15% increase in recovery compared to European cook-quench-chill systems
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature7 records

Scale indicators17 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• GEA Group: Global German industrial equipment conglomerate with a large food processing machinery division covering separation, homogenization, and cooking/cooling. Overlaps with Lyco's wastewater screens, pasteurizers, and processing equipment but at much broader portfolio scale.
• Alfa Laval: Swedish global industrial equipment maker with a food and water division covering heat transfer, separation, and fluid handling. Indirectly comparable to Lyco's wastewater and heat processing equipment within larger industrial customer base.
• Bühler Group: Swiss global leader in food processing equipment for grains, rice, pasta, and protein applications. Comparable in pasta/rice/dry bean processing where Lyco competes with Bühler's optical sorting and processing lines; substantially larger and more international.
• Marel: Icelandic global leader in food processing equipment for meat, poultry, fish, and plant-based protein. Direct overlap in protein processing and prepared food lines; significantly larger and more globally diversified than Lyco.
• JBT Corporation: US-listed provider of food processing and air transport equipment. The food technology segment competes with Lyco in cooking, cooling, freezing, and protein processing, but JBT's scale and public-market access give it structural advantages.

Direct peers

• Urschel Laboratories: Privately held manufacturer of industrial food cutting, slicing, and processing machinery. Similar mid-sized specialized industrial equipment maker with a global installed base of food processing equipment and focus on yield and throughput optimization.
• Heat and Control: Privately held manufacturer of food processing and packaging equipment with deep penetration into snack food, prepared foods, and protein processors. Directly comparable product overlap (cooking, frying, conveying) and similar go-to-market selling to Top 100 food companies in North America.
• Provisur Technologies: Industrial food processing equipment maker specializing in protein and food separation, forming, and cooking technologies. Comparable mid-sized B2B manufacturer serving meat, poultry, and prepared foods processors with similar customer profile to Lyco.

Emerging players

• Hollymatic: Smaller US manufacturer of food processing equipment focused on portioning, forming, and protein processing. Comparable mid-market competitor in selected protein and prepared food processing applications.
• Frontier Equipment (TPS / Thermal Process Systems): US-based thermal processing equipment manufacturer for prepared foods, soups, sauces, and pouched products. Direct niche overlap with Lyco's Chill-Flow pouch cooler and rotary drum pasteurizer product lines.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/LycoMfgInc
• Facebookfacebook.com/lycomfg
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/lyco-manufacturing-company
• Xx.com/lycomfginc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Lyco Manufacturing, Inc.